E 768 
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Copy 1 



Ihe Mexican Policy 

of President Woodrow Wilson 
as it Appears to a Mexican 



Lawrence F. Abbott, Esq., President of The Out- 
look Company, publisher of "The Outlook/' says of 
this work by Mr. Calero : 

"I have read with care, and to my surprise with deep 
interest, the copy of the manuscript you sent me entitled 
'The Mexican Policy of President Woodrow Wilson as It 
Appears to a Mexican.' 

"I say with surprise, because I have read an almost 
endless amount of material on the Mexican situation. Yet 
I found this particular review and interpretation of the 
problem more instructive and iHuminating than almost 
anything else I have read. My judgment is that no man 
who reads it can fail to understand the main historical 
points of the present complicated relations of this country 
to Mexico and the effect which our policy has produced 
both in Mexico and in the United States. 

"In spite of its uncompromising condemnation of 
President Wilson's course, it is written in the language 
and the spirit of the diplomatic gentleman." 



COPTEIGHTED, 1916 



The Mexican Policy 

of President Woodrow Wilson 
as it Appears to a Mexican 



By 

MANUEL GALERO 

Secretary of Foreign Relations, and later, Ambassador to the 

United States, under the administration of 

President Francisco I. Madero 



Press of 

SxMITri & THOMSON 

58 HroiKl Street 

New York 



E7UZ 



OCT -9 1916 



CU438774 



FOREWORD. 

This book has not been written in a spirit of im- 
passioned criticism or disrespect, but solely for the 
purpose of fulfilling a patriotic duty. 

As a Mexican citizen and as a man who has had 
something to do with the public affairs of Mexico, I 
cannot fail to see wdth deep discouragement and 
humiliation the ruin of my countr}^ brought about 
by a complication of facts in which the government 
of the United States has played an important part. 

I understand that it is perfectly proper for me to 
contri1)ute to the study of this momentous question, 
when it is considered that in the solution of the Mexi- 
can problem the future of my country is involved. 

I have tried to be impartial. To attain this end 
I have avoided making any statement which could 
not be verified with documentarv evidence. 

New York, N. Y., September 30, 1916. 

MANUEL CALERO. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Chapter I. — The Fall of President Madero 7 

Chapter II. — The Non-Recognition of Huerta 12 

Chapter III. — The Duel Between President Wilson and 

Huerta 14 

Chapter IV. — President Wilson, Protector of the Revolu- 
tionists 26 

Chapter V. — The Triumphant "Constitutionalists" and 

The Recognition 32 

Chapter VI. — Ought the American Government to Have 

Recognized Carranza? . 38 

Chapter VII. — The First Consequences of the Recognition.. 

— Santa Isabel and Columbus 49 

Chapter VIII. — From Columbus to Carrizal 55 

Chapter IX.— The Cruel Side of the Policy of Mr. Wilson. 60 

Chapter X. — Pecuniary Responsibilities of the American 

People 67 

Chapter XL— False Postulates — "The Struggle for Lib- 
erty." "The Fight for the Land." The 
Concessionaires 77 

Chapter XIL— The Power of Words.— "He Has Kept Us 

Out of Mexico" 87 

Appendix 95 



CHAPTER L 

THE FALL OF PRESIDENT MADEEO. 

Early in February, 1913, a part of the garrison of the 
City of Mexico revolted against the government. The 
chief of the movement was General Bernardo Reyes. The 
rebels, with Reyes at their head, tried to occupy the Na- 
tional Palace but failed on account of the resistance which 
was made to them there. General Reyes perished in the 
attempt; and the rebels who, from that moment, were 
under the orders of General Felix Diaz (nephew of former 
president, Porfirio Diaz), marched to the arsenal — or 
citadel — which they occupied after a brief combat. There 
they shut themselves in and fortified the place. 

The Government immediately determined to attack the 
Citadel and suppress the uprising. Troops were brought 
from different parts of the Republic and the command of 
these, as well as the direction of operations, was entrusted 
to General Victoriano Huerta. 

After ten days of fighting, with grave damage to the 
buildings of the City and considerable loss of life among 
the inhabitants, the situation suddenly changed. General 
Huerta, secretly placing himself in accord with the rebels, 
took possession of the persons of President Madero and 
Vice-President Pino Suarez ; the attacks against the Cita- 
del ceased and peace again reigned in the City. 

This happened on the 18th day of February, 1913. 

A few hours after the President and Vice-President 
were arrested. General Victoriano Huerta and General 
Felix Diaz held a conference in which it was agreed and 
declared that the government of Mr. j\Iadero had ceased, 
that Huerta would take charge of the Executive Power 
and that Diaz would reserve to himself the right of pre- 
senting himself as candidate in the presidential election 
which would have to be convoked. This famous confer- 
ence took place in the Embassy of the United States. 

7 



8 

The princiiDal problem for Huerta consisted in having 
his authority recognized throughout the Republic. He 
was able to count upon the passivity of the people, but it 
was impossible that his spurious government would be ac- 
cepted by the different military chiefs and by the gov- 
ernors of the twenty-seven states. The situation, how- 
ever, was cleared within twenty-four hours by the attitude 
of President Madero and Vice-President Pino Suarez, who 
consented to resign their offices. The following plan was 
contrived for the purpose, which Mr. Madero accepted: 
Upon the acceptance by the Chamber of Deputies — which, 
according to the Mexican Constitution, is competent for 
the case — of the resignations of the President and Vice- 
President, the Minister of Foreign Relations, Lascurain, 
would be converted automatically into provisional Presi- 
dent ; Lascurain would appoint Huerta to the first post in 
the Cabinet and thereupon he would resign the Presidency 
in order that Huerta, at the same time, might remain, also 
automatically, as provisional President. 

This plan was executed to the very letter. 

The easy attitude of Mr. Madero and the action of the 
Chamber of Deputies were the salvation of Huerta. The 
latter was immediately recognized as President by the en- 
tire army and by the governors of twenty-five of the twen- 
ty-seven states into which the Republic is divided. The 
government was organized without delay and all the 
nations of the world, with the exception of five, recognized 
it as the legitimate government of Mexico. 

It being a fact fully proved that Mr. Madero was a man 
of great personal valor, it is not easy to attribute his resig- 
nation to fear of losing his life. Although he was a pris- 
oner when he resigned, no violence was offered to his per- 
son. Mr. Madero knew, on the other hand, as we have al- 
ready noted, that the immediate effect of his resignation 
was to give the Presidency to Huerta, and to cover with 
a varnish of legality that which at bottom was a usurpa- 
tion. 



But Mr. Madero consented to all this, surely for the 
generous and patriotic purpose of avoiding further evil to 
the country. The Chamher of Deputies, the niajoritj^ of 
which was devoted to Madero, lent its concurrence to the 
unfortunate conihination. and the traitorous general was 
thus able to api)ear clothed with the character of provi- 
sional President, which he would not have been able to 
attain if Madero had assumed a different attitude. 

If we wish to apply to these proceedings the standard 
of American politics, we will have to condemn them as null 
and without value ; but if they are to be judged according 
to the standard of Latin- American politics, the conclusion 
will be different. The proceeding followed b}^ Huerta was 
not of his invention ; it is one which has prevailed in the 
countries that are found south of the Eio Grande and 
which is still applied and will continue to be applied for 
many long years in the greater part of them. The tem- 
perament, the economic factors, the political traditions, 
the want of preparation for self-goveniment and, more 
than all, the decisive influence which is exercised by the 
mass of Indians, completely ignorant and illiterate, who 
form the overwhelming majority of the population — all 
this explains the difference in political methods between 
those countries and the more favored ones of this con- 
tinent. 

It does not enter into the object of this sketch to refer, 
not even in a brief synopsis, to the history of the changes 
of government in the Latin-American countries. Nor 
could the writer ever justify acts which are repugnant to 
his conscience. 

But if it is desired to have an idea of the turbulent i)oli- 
tical life of those peoples, it will be sufficient to recall the 
case of Bolivia which in seventy-three years has suffered 
not less than sixty revolutions and has seen six of its 
presidents assassinated, and others, in greater number, 
obliged to seek securit}' in exile. Was not the proceeding 
of Huerta the same as that which, a few days afterwards. 



10 

was applied in Peru when a military chief headed an up- 
rising of his soldiers and took possession of the person of 
President Billinghurst and imprisoned him in the Peni- 
tentiary? The new Peruvian government, born in this 
manner out of betrayal and of military revolt, has been, 
nevertheless, recognized by all . . . including President 
Wilson ! 

From the moment in which the resignations of Messrs. 
Madero and Pino Suarez were admitted by the Chamber 
of Deputies, the former were converted into simple 
private citizens. Three days afterwards these ex-otf icials, 
who had been detained in the National Palace, were con- 
ducted toward the Penitentiary and were assassinated on 
the road. 

The defenders of the policy of President Wilson take 
great pains to reverse the order of these events. As dis- 
tinguished a man as the Secretary of the Interior, Mr. 
Lane, has said: "With the elected President and Vice- 
President murdered and the Secretary of State (Las- 
curain), who was their lawful successor, cowed into sub- 
mission, Huerta took the reins of power." (Authorized 
interview in the New York World, July 16, 1916.) 

We should not fail to call attention to the political im- 
portance which the order of events has in this case. 
Morally judged, the assassination is as reprehensible and 
criminal, committed before the advent of Hilerta to power 
as afterwards, but when it is said that Huerta obtained 
the government by means of the assassination of Mr. 
Madero, the truth is altered. It has been explained above 
that Huerta came into power by virtue of the resignation 
of President Madero and that the latter knew the material 
and political consequences of his own act. Mr. Madero 
•was assassinated on the 22nd of February at midnight. 
Huerta had taken the oath of office as provisional Presi- 
dent of the Republic before the Congress on the 19th. 

What, then, was the motive of this odious action? The 
assassination of Madero was a "political crime" as in all 



11 

probability it was executed because of the fear that Ma- 
dero could initiate a new and formidable revolution as 
soon as he should recover his liberty. Madero had dared 
to rebel against the strongest government that Mexico had 
ever had — that of General Porlirio Diaz — and had forced 
it to fall. Why should he not accomplish a similar feat 
against the men who had succeeded him I 

The men who killed Madero did not assassinate any 
president, but a man who had ceased to be such. Assassi- 
nations of a political character are only a natural fruit of 
the turbulent Latin-American politics. As the govern- 
ments of these countries subsist only on condition of not 
having active enemies, Latin- American presidents often 
resort to assassinations as a means to maintain peace and 
conserve their power. It would be easy to cite the names 
of actual iDresidents in Central and South American states 
who have used and are using homicide as a means of rid- 
ding themselves of their enemies. Mr. Carranza, the pro- 
tege of President Wilson, employs this means with as- 
tonishing frequency, in the guise of punishment for al- 
leged treason, or of military necessity. 

Such is the sad condition in which the majority of the 
Republics on this side of the Atlantic are found ; that con- 
dition, nevertheless, is not of a permanent character. Chile, 
Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and perhaps some others, ap- 
pear to have redeemed their politics from this shameful 
vice. Mexico also appeared free from it when Madero as- 
cended to power, who, though indeed a revolutionist and a 
destroyer of the public order, never ordered the death of 
any man, and showed himself generous even to his bitter- 
est enemies. For this reason he was overthrown. 



12 



CHAPTER II. 

THE NON-RECOGNITION OF HUERTA. 

A few days after tlie happening of tlie events related in 
the preceding chapter, Mr. Woodrow Wilson occupied the 
Presidency of the United States. 

Huerta, following diplomatic practice, directed auto- 
graphic letters to the monarchs and presidents of the coun- 
tries with which Mexico maintains relations, announcing 
his elevation to power. All — with the exception of five — 
answered those letters, formal recognition of Huerta as 
provisional President of Mexico being thus elfectuated. 
The American government abstained from making reply 
and succeeded, by means of direct requests, in having the 
governments of Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Cuba follow 
its example. 

Wliat did President Wilson propose? To deprive 
Huerta of the moral support which the recognition of the 
United States would signify for him"? If such had been 
his object, Mr. Wilson would have been acting his part of 
moralist, and his attitude would have been fully justified 
in the field of abstract morals. 

In the field of international law, however, and of the 
precedents of the American government, the conclusion is 
different. Huerta was, at least, a de facto ruler and he 
was such during many months. The American govern- 
ment has always recognized governments de facto, even 
those born of military insurrection, such as the present 
government of Peru which was recognized by Mr. Wilson. 

In reality, in all this business of the "Mexican Policy" 
of President Wilson, there is a lamentable confusion of 
ideas. The President did not expressly recognize Huerta 
because he did not reply to his autographic letter ; but he, 
nevertheless, maintained in Mexico for more than a year 
an Ambassador, first, and afterwards a Charge D' Affaires. 
The American Ambassador officially congratulated 



13 

Huerta for his elevation to power, and President Wilson 
did not recall that Ambassador until five months after- 
ward. Huerta appointed a Charge D' Affaires in Wash- 
ington who was for more than a year recognized as such. 
The Department of State in Washington published con- 
stantly in its monthly bulletin the name of this Charge 
D'Affaires as the "Representative of Mexico." Lastly, 
the official relations between both governments were ex- 
pressly and solemnly intermpted by the delivery of their 
respective passports to the Charges D'Affaires when the 
forces of the United States occupied Vera Cruz in April, 
1914, fourteen months after Huerta took possession of the 
government. 

From this it cannot be said with any truth whatever that 
Huerta was not recognized. The express recognition has 
little to do with the case if both governments treated each 
other reciprocally as such governments. If the intention 
of Mr. Wilson was that of not recognizing Huerta, the 
stay of the American Embassy in Mexico had no possible 
explanation. It was not, indeed, for the purpose of watch- 
ing over the lives and interests of the citizens of the United 
States, since, aside from the fact that this duty, as the 
whole world knows, has little concerned the present ad- 
ministration in Washington, such a mission could have 
been confided to the representative of any friendly nation, 
as is frequently done in practice. 

It is not worth while, however, to quibble over mere 
words. Call it, or not, recognition of the government of 
Huerta, the true question is this: that non-recogmtion, a 
merely negative act, fell within the constitutional faculties 
of President Wilson, whereas to destroy Huerta, to throw 
him from power, was a positive act which did not come 
within the legal faculties of the President of the United 
States, and which is, moreover, a direct violation of inter- 
national law. 

That this was the real purpose of Mr. Wilson, will be 
amply demonstrated in the following chapter. 



14 



CHAPTER III. 

THE DUEL BETWEEN PRESIDENT WILSON AND HUERTA. 

In the moments of the uprising against President Ma- 
dero, Huerta, drunk with joy and rum, directed a telegram 
to President Taft informing him that he had "overthrown 
the government." Secretary Bryan and others have said 
that this telegram was in itself sufficient reason for not 
recognizing Huerta, but we must not lose sight of the fact 
that when Huerta solicited recognition it was after the 
Mexican Congress had accepted him as President and had 
taken from him the oath of office. Still later, as has been 
explained, occurred the assassination of ex-president Ma- 
dero. 

Mr. Wilson found himself with this situation upon oc- 
cupying the White House. It is easy to understand that 
to a spirit such as his it would have been repugnant to 
recognize Huerta as President of Mexico. Prudence, how- 
ever, would counsel him to maintain a waiting attitude 
until the purposes of the new government touching the 
fulfillment of its international obligations had been de- 
fined. If these were duly fulfilled, there was no other 
road open to President Wilson, after waiting a prudent 
term, than that of formally recognizing Huerta in the 
same manner that another president of the United States 
had, a few years before, recognized King Peter of Servia 
who had mounted the throne over the bloody corpses of a 
king and queen, victims of an odious military insurrection. 

Nevertheless, it can well be supposed that President 
Wilson had desired to give a lofty example of interna- 
tional morality in refusing absolutely to recognize a presi- 
dent who had arrived to power by the tortuous proceed- 
ings employed by Huerta; and even when such attitude 
should appear to have lost its virtue with the recognition 
by him of the Peruvian government, still it would have 
been possible to add a new motive of justification to the 



15 

attitude that we are supposing, namely that it was claimed 
that Huerta bad stained liis hands with blood. 

This, or other explanations more or less plausible, 
could have been given to justify any innovation which 
President Wilson might have desired to impress upon the 
practices of recognition ; but it was one thing not to recog- 
nize Huerta and a vastly ditf erent thing for the President 
to impose upon himself the task of destroying the power 
of Huerta. 

Huerta was a usurper. But did it belong to the Presi- 
dent of the United States to drive him from the place 
usurped? This was a matter that concerned exclusively 
the people of Mexico. If the Mexican Congress had sanc- 
tioned the usurpation, it was ridiculous to suppose that 
the President of the United States had the authority to 
undo what the Mexican Congress had done. Nevertheless, 
this it was, nothing less, which Mr. Wilson proposed to 
himself to execute and, in effect, did execute, making use, 
for that purpose, of every kind of means, as will be seen 
further on. 

And it is not mere conjecture to say that President Wil- 
son iDroposed to himself to overthrow Huerta. The 
"Democratic Text Book" of 1914, which is an enthusiastic 
apology of Mr. Wilson and which speaks with authority, 
says in this respect that the President "notified the other 
governments that not only ivould Huerta not he recognized 
hy the United States, hut that the infiuence of the Ameri- 
can Government would he exerted against him." 

Unfortunately not only was that influence used, but also 
the material power of the American government. 

This attitude of President Wilson was baptized by him- 
self, ironical as it may appear, by the name of the policy 
of "Watchful Waiting." Its first result was, nevertheless, 
that of strengthening Huerta instead of weakening him. 
It offered to the latter the occasion of exhibiting himself 
as champion of the national dignity, as defender of the 
sovereignty of Mexico against the intrusion of a foreign 



16 

government. The European press so considered it. The 
people of various South American cities acclaimed Huerta 
as a hero, the paladin of the honor of the Latin race. The 
special Embassy which Huerta sent to Japan was received 
with public enthusiasm and with great acclamations to the 
dictator. 

The first step of President Wilson in the execution of 
his policy was that of stationing powerful squadrons in 
Vera Cruz and other Mexican ports. The government of 
Huerta informed that of the United States that the Mexi- 
can constitution fixed a limit of one month for the stay 
of foreign vessels of war in the waters of the Republic, 
but the notice was disregarded and the ships remained in 
the ports as if they had been converted into American 
naval stations. 

Was this done out of consideration for the fact that the 
ships were necessary to protect the lives and property of 
American residents in Mexico ! A negative answer is im- 
posed. In the first place. President Wilson has not shown 
any interest in his countrymen in Mexico. (This has been 
amply proved; it does not belong to the author of these 
lines, who is a Mexican, to reproduce here the proofs.) In 
the second place, the government of Huerta was not hos- 
tile to the persons and interests of Americans, nor could 
there be any doubt of his ability to protect them. On the 
contrary, until the violent occupation of Vera Cruz by the 
forces of the United States, foreigners in general and 
Americans in particular sutfered in their persons and 
property only in those regions occupied by the enemies of 
the government of Huerta. 

The stay of the war vessels in Mexican waters without 
any practical necessity, and in defiance of the laws of the 
country, irritated the public sentiment and served as a sad 
prologue to the second step of intervention of President 
Wilson, which was the sending of Mr. Lind on a most 
stupendous mission. 

Mr. John Lind arrived in Mexico with a message from 



\ 

\ 17 

President Wilson inviting Huerta to abandon his office. 
Mr. AVilson suggested as a means thereof the celebration 
of a general election, but on the express condition that 
Huerta should not be a candidate. 

When this step became known to the public — which was 
taken as the purpose of Mr. W^ilson to dictate to Mexico 
the class of government which it must have — a sentiment 
of indignation was manifested eveiTwhere. The eloquent 
notes with which Mr. Gamboa, Secretary of Foreign Re- 
lations, answered the memorandum of Mr. Lind, contrib- 
uted to increase the general excitement. This arose to a 
great height when Lind indicated to Mr. Gamboa that the 
American government would make use of its influence to 
aid the Mexican government in obtaining a loan, provided 
Huerta would accept the conditions proposed by Mr. 
Wilson. 

In his message to Congress on the 27th of August, 1913, 
President Wilson declared that Lind had discharged his 
mission "with singular tact," but whoever is acquainted 
with the Latin- American temperament will comprehend 
that it was an unheard of stupidity to make the otfer of 
financial support under such circumstances, which in 
public was taken as a covert form of proposing a bribe as 
a means of obtaining the end that was sought. 

Huerta took advantage of the public sentiment in his 
favor. President Wilson aided him in clothing his wan- 
ing personality with a false prestige. The dictator accen- 
tuated his part of defender of the outraged national 
dignity. 

Mr. Wilson, who is wholly ignorant of the temperament 
of Latin- American peoples, could not take account of the 
damage which he was causing to Mexico with the embassy 
of Mr. Lind. WHien the latter arrived in Vera Cruz, there 
existed against Huerta, not only among the civil element, 
but among the military, i)rofound motives of discontent. 
It was entirely probable that a well combined movement 
would have overthrown the dictator, thus freeing the coun- 



18 

try of one of its most baneful governments. But all was 
frustrated, due to the intrusion of President Wilson. 
''Huerta, right or wrong," said everybody, "rather than 
accept a foreign imposition." 

Thus strengthened, Huerta grew in audacity and felt 
himself capable of committing the worst outrages. Upon 
the invitation of President Wilson that a prompt election 
should be held in order that the country might return to 
the constitutional order, Huerta answered with the violent 
dissolution of the Congress, an act which completely ended 
all appearance of constitutional government in Mexico. 

The mission of Lind having utterly failed. President 
Wilson applied himself to more practical proceedings. 

It is known that a little while after Huerta was in- 
stalled, the governor of the State of Coahuila, Venustiano 
Carranza, initiated a revolution against him. Very soon 
Carranza had to flee from his state and seek refuge in the 
State of Sonora whose governor, Maytorena, had also re- 
pudiated the government of Huerta. Little by little the 
movement — to which was given the name of "Constitution- 
alist," because its alleged object was the re-establishment 
of the Constitution — was increasing in the north of the 
ReiDublic, thanks to the impetuous military action of the 
"General" Francisco Villa. 

Mr. Wilson found a new and greatly efficient means of 
combatting Huerta: namely, that of strengthening the 
"Constitutionalists." For this purpose he raised the 
"embargo," that is, the prohibition which existed of ex- 
porting arms and ammunition from the United States to 
Mexico. With this, Villa was able to organize and arm a 
powerful army and the power of the revolutionary move- 
ment against Huerta was made formidable. 

But because not even with this aid did the power of 
Huerta disappear. President Wilson resorted to a new ex- 
pedient. By the efforts of the American government, the 
French government interposed its veto to prevent cer- 
tain French bankers from completing the loan which they 



19 

had contracted with Huerta and of which he had only re- 
ceived one-third part. 

Naturally, the govermnent of Hncrta faced threatened 
bankruptcy and so it was compelled to resort to extreme 
measures, the first of which was to suspend payment of 
the interest on the interior and exterior debt of Mexico. 
The credit of the Republic received thereby a mortal blow. 
But this is not the only thing that must be considered. The 
indirect result of the effort of Mr. Wilson is incalculably 
harmful if we take into account the enormous number of 
poor people who in Europe had invested their savings in 
the government bonds of Mexico, which for so many years 
had been esteemed as securities of the first order. 

But the interventionist policy of the President arrived 
at its culmination in the case of the Tampico incident. 

This important Mexican port was found practically be- 
sieged on the land side by the Carranza forces. Battles 
were taking place daily and the city was under martial 
law. Consequently, no one w^as permitted to enter or 
leave without express authority of the commanding gen- 
eral. 

Under these conditions a boat belonging to the Ameri- 
can war vessel "Dolphin" approached one of the wharves 
and the men who manned it disembarked without exhibit- 
ing the requisite permit. The Mexican subaltern officer 
who commanded the detachment charged with guarding 
this wharf, understood that he must comply with his duty 
in applying the general order which had been given in 
respect to exits and entrances, and he arrested the boat's 
crew. These were conducted to headquarters, but a few 
minutes afterward they were placed at liberty. After 
their liberation, an apology followed which the com- 
mander of the Mexican forces in Tampico gave to Admiral 
Mayo, commander of the American squadron stationed in 
the port. The admiral did not consider this sufficient 
satisfaction and asked that the American flag be saluted 



20 

with twenty-one guns, which the Federal Commander in 
Tampico did not consider himself authorized to concede. 

Both governments being informed, the matter was 
made a diplomatic one. Huerta hastened to give a per- 
sonal satisfaction to the Charge D' Affaires of the United 
States and ordered that the officer who had made the ar- 
rest of the American marines should be punished. On his 
part. President Wilson resolved to exact the salute re- 
quired by Admiral Mayo. Huerta acceded to this in prin- 
ciple on condition that the American government should 
consent to salute — also with twenty-one guns — the Mexi- 
can flag. President Wilson accepted this condition and 
then Huerta, with incredible stupidity, insisted that be- 
fore the salutes were given, a protocol should be signed 
by both governments. 

These delays afforded to President Wilson an excep- 
tional oioportunity to crush Huerta and he did not waste 
it. On the 20th of April, 1914, he presented himself be- 
fore the Congress and stated that he had resolved "to in- 
sist that the flag of the United States should be saluted," 
and at the same time he asked the approval of Congress 
to use the armed forces of the United States for the pur- 
pose of obtaining from Huerta "the fullest recognition of 
the rights and dignity of the United States." 

If the conduct of President Wilson in this case is com- 
pared with what has been followed in analogous cases, al- 
though infinitely more grave, it will be clearly seen that 
in the Tampico incident and in two other utterly trivial 
incidents which Mr. Wilson mentioned in his message to 
Congress, there was not the shadow of a pretext to launch 
against Huerta all the weight of the military forces of the 
United States. 

Let us mention two of the cases alluded to. 

First : All of the dailies published on the 29th of June, 
1916, the note of the American government to the Austro- 
Hungarian government apropos of the attack by an Aus- 
trian submarine on the American steamship, "Petrolite." 
The event had such a character of gravity that the Ameri- 



21 

can government considered the conduct of the commander 
of the submarine "as a deliberate insult to the flag of the 
United States." Well, then, a "deliberate insult" to the 
American flag was an offense more grave than that of 
Tampico, all of whose circumstances proved that if there 
were an "insult," it could not be considered "deliberate." 
Nevertheless, in the case of the Petrolite an apology only 
was demanded, it being added that the American govern- 
ment expected it from the Austrian government, "whose 
high sense of honor * * would not, it is believed, per- 
mit an indignity to be offered to the flag of a friendly 
power." We do not know whether the apology was given 
or not ; but contrast the attitude of President Wilson in 
respect to a powerful nation from which only an apology 
was expected when it was a question of "deliberate insults" 
and "indignities committed against the flag of the United 
States," with the brave attitude assumed against the gov- 
erament of Huerta which committed no deliberate insult 
to the flag. In the first case, an apology is asked. In the 
sevond case the apology given was repudiated and an act 
wau exacted which, under the circumstances, was humiliat- 
ing and, finally, force was made use of against the weak. 

Second: On the 18th of June, 1916, a boat from the 
American cruiser "Annapolis" anchored in the port of 
Mazatlan, Mexico, directed itself to the wharf in search 
of refugee Americans. Two officers of the "Annapolis," 
who went in the boat, were arrested immediately when 
they set foot upon land and were conducted between Car- 
ranza soldiers, who heaped vile insults upon them and 
threatened to shoot them. Finally the officers were placed 
at liberty and obliged to re-embark; but when the boat 
pushed off" from the wharf the Carrancistas fired upon it 
and killed one of the "blue-jackets." Compare this in- 
cident, in which two American officers were subjected to 
indignities and a marine who wore the uniform of the 
United States was murdered, with the occurrence at Tam- 
pico. Nevertheless, the Mazatlan incident was not made 



22 

the motive of any intemperate discussion nor was any 
salute to the flag exacted nor, as it appears, any especial 
apology. It was not Huerta who was involved but Car- 
ranza, favored and protected by President Wilson, and, 
therefore, the offended flag remained offended, the in- 
sulted officials remained with their insults, and the dead 
blue-jacket remained dead. 

The message which the President read before the Con- 
gress on account of the incident of Tampico is a notable 
rhetorical production in which the true intention of its 
author is ably concealed. It would have been very crude 
on his part to say that his object in soliciting the approval 
of Congress to use the forces of the United States was 
that of overthrowing Huerta. Surely, even the most sub- 
missive Democrats would have mutinied at having sus- 
pected such a proposition, and the President, as it ap- 
pears, foresaw the danger and very ably avoided it by 
choosing the j)retext of an insult to the flag. 

It is also clear that the American people in general and 
the Congress in particular fell into the net, for even to- 
day we hear repeatedly these questions : "Why was not 
the flag finally saluted!" "Wliy, if Congress resolved that 
the President was acting with justification, 'in the em- 
jDloyment of the armed forces of the United States to en- 
force his demand for unequivocal amends for certain af- 
fronts and indignities committed against the United 
States,' why, they ask, were those amends never ob- 
tained!" and finally "Why did President Wilson renounce 
expressly in the conference of Niagara Falls, all right to 
exact such unequivocal amends?" The indignation of the 
members of Congress, especially of the Democrats, had 
acute manifestations when the resolution solicited by the 
President was under discussion. Some said that it was 
indispensable that "Old Glory" remain "unsullied and un- 
spotted from insult and dishonor by greasers in Mexico." 
(See Congressional Record, April 22, 1914.) Mr. Under- 
wood, the distinguished Democratic leader, pronounced 



23 

these unequivocal words: ''Hie flag lias been dishonored 
in a foreign laud, on foreign soil. The President of the 
United States comes here to-day and though he has not 
asked you to declare war, asks you to sustain him in using 
the military forces of our government to require a decent 
respect for that flag and an honorable consideration of 
your government." 

Before both houses of Congress had passed a resolution, 
Vera Cruz was taken by the naval forces of the United 
States. Without previous declaration of war — because it 
was said that this war was not war — the city was as- 
saulted. Nineteen American marines were killed and more 
than seventy wounded. More than one hundred Mexicans 
lost their lives. 

A few weeks afterward Mr. Wilson delivered an oration " 
in the Brooklyn Navy Yard at the funeral of the victims 
of his aversion to Huerta. There were the nineteen 
corjjses of the poor, brave boys whom the President sent 
to die in the streets of Vera Cruz, not to avenge an out- 
rage to their flag nor to cause the dignity of the United 
States to be respected — things which the President never 
again mentioned — but to do for the Mexican people the 
"service" of freeing them from one who had had the au- 
dacity to refuse to submit to the dictates of President Wil- 
son as to the kind of government which Mexico ought to 
have. 

"W^e have gone down to Mexico to serve mankind," said 
the President in the presence of the nineteen dead blue- 
jackets ; "we want to serve the Mexicans" ... "a war of 
service is a thing in which it is a proud thing to die." 

In spite of this interesting confession of President 
Wilson, a less romantic motive has been given for the oc- 
cupation of Vera Cruz than that it was "a war to serve 
mankind." It has been said, in effect, that the real pur- 
pose of the President was to prevent the steamship Ypir- 
anga, which brought from Europe a cargo of arms and 
ammunition for Huerta, from delivering its precious 



24 

cargo. Secretary Lane, in the unfortunate defense which 
he makes of the "Mexican Policy" of the President, which 
we have mentioned above, says that as Huerta continued 
resisting the revolution headed by Carranza, Mr. Wilson 
decided to j^revent him from receiving the cargo of the 
Ypiranga ; an exj)lanation which reveals the complicity of 
the American government with a revolution whose mili- 
tary hero w^as no less a person than the famous bandit, 
'Tancho" Villa. 

But the most singular thing in this case is the fact that 
the Ypiranga, after entering the port of Vera Cruz, turned 
her prow to Puerto Mexico, a few miles further south, 
where she tranquilly delivered to Huerta all the arms and 
ammunition which she brought on board! Was it worth 
the pains for this result to sacrifice nearly two hundred 
Mexican and American lives? 

It is imjoortant to finish with this deception. President 
Wilson did not occupy Vera Cruz to avenge the outrage to 
the flag, as the Congress innocently believed, and as the 
majority of the American people still believe. President 
Wilson occupied Vera Cruz, as he said metaphorically, 
"to serve mankind," or, as Secretary Lane says without 
metaphor : "to show Mexico that we were in earnest in our 
demand tliat Huerta must go." (Interview in the New 
York W^orld, July 16, 1916, above cited.) This fact is 
shamelessly admitted in the Democratic campaign text 
book of 1916! 

No one can find in the constitution or the laws of the 
United States, or in the precepts of international law, the 
slightest foundation for these acts, nor in any code of 
morals a justification for the sacrifice of the lives that 
these acts demanded. 

Was Huerta responsible for any crime against the 
United States ? It would be difficult to prove it. He had, 
on the contrary, amply protected the lives and interests of 
Americans in Mexico. If Huerta had committed crimes 
against his own country it did not belong to the President 



25 

of the United States to punish Lim. Within one year 
after having abandoned Mexico, the tragic dictator dis- 
embarked publicly in the port of New York, opened an 
office on Broadway, was "lionized" by the newsj)ai)ers, 
while the President of the United States, who sacriticed so 
many lives to punish hhn in Mexico, was impotent to lay 
the hand of a single i)oliceman upon the ''usuri)er." The 
laws of the United States sei*ved him as a shield, and only 
in the land where those same laws could not exercise their 
protective action was he made to feel the arbitrary power 
of the President of the United States in all its rigor. 

Huerta was persecuted later when he directed himself 
to the South to promote — surely without the ability to 
carry it to a head — a revolution in Mexico. Either through 
stupidity or because his histrionic temperament induced 
him to play the part of a martyr, he fell into the net of 
the laws of neutrality and died a prisoner of the govern- 
ment of the United States. 



26 



CHAPTER IV. 

PEESIDENT WILSON, PEOTECTOR OF THE REVOLUTIONISTS. 

Whoever may have followed the development of the 
revolution against Huerta is acquainted with the character- 
istic features of this movement. The revolutionists sig- 
nalized themselves by the most cruel manifestations of 
savagery, by a ferocity without limits. It is true that 
Huerta is as responsible as Carranza for the inhuman act 
of sacrificing prisoners of war, whom both contending 
parties put to death without mercy ; but the forces of Car- 
ranza committed other excesses, such as the sacking of 
towns, attacks against the honor of w^omen, profanation 
of temples, the assassination of pacific inhabitants, the ex- 
pulsion en masse of foreigners, and destruction by fire 
and dynamite. 

To such a degree did these horrors arrive, that at one 
time General Scott, Chief of Staff of the American Army, 
presented to his "friend," Francisco Villa, the campaign 
regulations of the United States Army, to the end that the 
constitutionalist bandit, named a general by Carranza, 
should try to imitate the proceedings of civilized armies in 
time of war. 

Neither the generous pains of General Scott nor the 
efforts of some cultivated officers who, like General An- 
geles, were commanding in the revolutionary files, pro- 
duced any results. The "generals" born of the revolution 
were the first in committing every kind of excesses against 
honor, life, religion and property. 

It was explicable that the people in general, above all, 
the cultivated or wealthy classes, would have more horror 
for the revolution than for the dictatorship of Huerta, 
and that they saw with astonishment that the American 
Government should offer its aid to the "constitutionalists." 

This aid at first was indirect, in the fonn explained in 



27 

Chapter III, that is, by means of a series of acts hostile 
to Huerta; in the beginning a moral, and later, a military, 
hostility. 

Finally the support was direct and frank. 

A short time after the occupation of Vera Cruz by 
the forces of the United States, the city of Tampico, 
evacuated by the federal troops, was taken by Carranza 
forces. Although the xVmerican Government had just 
re-established, for a brief period, the embargo against 
the exportation of materials of war — ])robably because of 
a lukewarm j^rotest from Carranza on account of the oc- 
cupation of Vera Cruz — the Carranza agents in New 
York made openly and publicly a large shipment of muni- 
tions by the steamship "xVntilla, " destined to Tampico. 

Huerta protested against the violation of the embargo 
and announced his purpose of blockading Tampico to 
prevent the munitions from arriving at their destination. 
To make his determination effective, he disjDatched two 
gun-boats to Tampico. 

The American Government, on learning this, declared 
that Tampico was an open port and that it must be kept 
open. The Mexican gun-boats were followed closely by 
powerful American cruisers, which carried the order to 
prevent the establishment of the blockade. 

It is difficult to understand how a foreign government 
could proceed in this manner without committing an act 
of intervention in a business of strict internal regulation. 
What would the people of the United States have said 
if the British Government had declared, during the Civil 
War, that the ports of the South must be opened to traffic, 
and if it had caused its decision to bo respected by means 
of the powerful British fleet? 

The offer of the Government of Huerta to restrict 
the blockade to the introduction of arms and munitions 
for his enemies served for nothing. Washington re- 
mained inflexible and the Dictator yielded to superior 



28 

power. A few days afterwards the "Antilla" delivered 
her cargo into the hands of the constitutionalists. 

There could no longer be any doubt regarding the 
attitude of President Wilson. He wished not only the 
elimination of Huerta, but the triumph of the faction 
then represented by Villa and Carranza. A new and un- 
equivocal confirmation of this fact was given in the con- 
ference of Niagara Falls. 

It "will be remembered that a few days after the occu- 
pation of Vera Cruz the diplomatic represeutatives of 
Brazil, Chili, and the Argentine Republic, in Washing- 
ton, tendered their good offices to resolve the difficulties 
between Mexico and the United States. The result of this 
oft'er was the conference of Niagara Falls which was at- 
tended by representatives of the Government of Huerta 
and of the American Government. 

The American representatives went to the conference 
with the purpose of obtaining, by means of an inter- 
national agreement, the establishment in Mexico of a 
government ]iresided over by one of the constitutionalist 
leaders. They did not go, as was natural to suppose, to 
seek any means of luitting an end to the incident created 
by the supposed outrage to the American flag, and to 
obtain the reparations which the Congress exacted when 
authorizing the President to make use of the army and 
navy of the United States. This incident had been re- 
duced, by means of enchantment, to such a degree of 
insignificance, that the American delegates solemnly re- 
nounced all right, which the United States might have, 
to obtain reparation of any kind whatever for the acts 
which the President qualified as highly offensive to the 
dignity of his country and to the honor of the American 
flag! 

From the beginning of the conference it could be 
seen that the only purpose of the mediation, so far as 
it interested the United States, was the expulsion of 



29 

Huerta and the delivery of the Mexican Government to 
those protected by President Wilson, that is to say, to the 
Constitutionalists. "The American Government SEEKS 
ONLY to assist in securing the pacification of Mexico," — 
that is to say, the end of the contest between Mexicans, 
a matter which did not belong to the Government of the 
United States to arrange, nor could it be a legitimate mo- 
tive for an international agreement, as it was a matter 
of interior regulation. "To bring that war to a close, 
to restore peace and constitutional government, is the 
aim of the President, and that end can only be obtained 
by consulting the just wish of the constitutionalists, who 
are not only in numerical majority, but are now the 
dominant force in the country.' ' When the Mexican dele- 
gates stated that Huerta would resign the power in favor 
of any man who might have been neutral in the Mexican 
quaiTcls, the American delegates insisted that the provi- 
sional presidency of Mexico must be confided "not to a 
neutral," but to a man "acceptable to the constitutional- 
ists," because "such a man, and only such a man, can 
reasonably be expected to have the confidence and respect 
of the entire country." (All the above words between 
quotations are taken from the declarations of the Ameri- 
can delegates published on the 19th of July, 1914.) 

It is proper to observe that the statement of the 
American delegates that the constitutionalists were in 
numerical majority was a gross untruth which revealed 
the profound ignorance that distinguishes the American 
Government in respect to the elements of the Mexican 
problem. This ignorance is fully demonstrated by the 
single noted fact that after two years of triumph of the 
revolution, in which the Government of Mexico has been 
in the hands of the first of the constitutionalist leaders, 
to-wit: Carranza, "such a man" has not obtained "the 
confidence and respect of the entire country." 

Carranza had been invited by the mediators to attend 
the conference; but under the condition that an armistice 



30 

with Huerta would be arranged. The condition was arro- 
gantly rejected. Carranza saw clearly that his situation 
would not be bettered by accepting the invitation of the 
A. B. C. conference; he was sufficiently astute to leave 
the entire task to the American Government, as all the 
diplomatic pressure which President Wilson exercised 
was for the benefit of Carranza, and as Carranza counted, 
moreover, on the incommensurable military aid which the 
United States was giving him by the occupation of Vera 
Cruz. 

Huerta could not resist this aggregate of adverse cir- 
cumstances and he fell. 

A most honorable man. Judge of the Federal Supreme 
Court, who had conserved an independent attitude during 
all the civil strife, Sr. Carvajal, succeeded Huerta. Car- 
vajal saw that it was senseless to oppose the combined 
forces of the United States and of the revolution, and, in 
consequence, he sent delegates to Carranza to invite the 
latter to take pacific possession of the government, with- 
out any other condition of fundamental character than 
that of respecting life, liberty and property. 

It was not the purpose of Carvajal to protect, from 
the wrath of the revolutionists, the assassins of Madero, 
or to protect those who had committed crimes during the 
seventeen months of the dictatorship of Huerta. All 
these had fled from the country or were safe in Vera Cruz 
under the efficient protection of General Funston. What 
Carvajal desired was to protect the City of Mexico and 
the richer and more populated portion of the Republic 
from the excesses which characterized the constitutionalist 
generals and soldiers, who had given proofs of an in- 
credible spirit of cruelty and of rapine in all the regions 
of the Republic which they had traversed. 

In the beginning the American Government supported 
the successor of Huerta in his legitimate efforts; but 
Carranza showed himself implacable. He insisted upon an 



31 

"nnconditional surrender" and absolutely refused to bind 
himself to anything. 

In the face of this attitude, Carvajal thought of resist- 
ing, not to conserve an official investiture which he him- 
self considered unsustainable, but to protect the most 
sacred rights of ]Mexicans and foreigners. He had at his 
disposition powerful contingents which still remained of 
the Federal army, and he counted on the sympathy of 
the people who looked with horror upon the approach of 
their ^'liberators." By an energetic and decisive attitude 
Carvajal, perhaps, might have obtained what the brutal 
obstinacy of Carranza refused. 

What could rationally be expected, in such a grave 
contingency, of a man so devoted to the "service of hu- 
manity" as President Wilson? Having assumed the part 
of protector of Carranza, it was to be sup]:)0sed tliat he 
would insist in the most energetic manner that his protege 
should concede the moderate and just conditions of Car- 
vajal. 

Nevertheless the very opposite happened. Carvajal 
received official notice that the American Government de- 
manded that he should surrender unconditionally to Car- 
ranza. To oppose this demand would have been madness. 
Carvajal abandoned the capital, of which possession was 
laken a few days later by the Carranza hordes. 

What happened then is something that the American 
Government has not dared to publish. The few honorable 
constitutionalists shudder to recall it. The Department 
of State has in its archives the official information of the 
outrages committed by the so-called constitutionalists in 
the great capital of Mexico. Never had the city suffered 
such indignities, not even in the blackest davs of our revo- 
lutionary life. Even the diplomatic representatives of 
the foreign governments were robbed by the Carranza 
"generals" and by the mob of ravenous politicians that 
followed Carranza; even the Brazilian Minister, official 
representative of the United States, was robbed. 



32 



CHAPTER V. 

THE TRIU]\IPHANT ^'CONSTITUTIOXALISTS'' AND THE 

RECOGNITION. 

The policy of President Wilson had been crowned by 
two positive successes: the elimination of Huerta and 
the triumph of the "Constitutionalists." 

To obtain these results, the President had sacrificed in 
Vera Cruz the lives of some twenty of his countrymen and 
had silent some millions of dollars, which the tax-paying 
Americans paid ; but these sacrifices were ])uny comj)ared 
with the enormous losses which the triumph of the "Con- 
stitutionalists" occasioned, losses in lives, in property and 
honor which the inhabitants of Mexico, foreigners and 
Mexicans, equally suifered. The quota of American citi- 
zens in this disaster is, surely, not insignificant. 

And all this, for what? The President has explained 
it: "To serve mankind, to serve the Mexicans, to help 
Mexico save herself and serve her people." 

There would occur to the least informed person upon 
theories of government, this inquiry: "What has the 
President of the United States to do with the quarrels 
of the Mexicans? Because it is simple common sense, if 
not an axiom, that the American Government was not 
instituted to act outside of its territory, in the service of 
humanity or the Mexicans, as the man who temporarily 
occupies the White House may understand this service; 
but rather to act in the service of Americans who may 
be in a foreign country and of the legitimate interests of 
the latter. 

But a singular thing: in all this history of the intru- 
sion of President A¥ilson in Mexico, there is not a single 
act calculated to ])rotect Americans in that country. All 
that api)ears to have inspired the President's activities has 
been a series of strange motives, such, for example, as his 



33 

"passion for the submerged eighty-five per cent of the 
people of that Repubhc, who are struggling toward 
liberty." (Interview in "The Saturday Evening Post," 
May 23rd, 1914.) 

Let it not be understood that the author of these lines 
censures the President for not having concerned himself 
with the protection of Americans in Mexico, since that 
is not incumbent upon the writer, as a Mexican; but if 
attention is called to this circumstance, it is only to em- 
jjhasize the absurdity of the position taken by the Presi- 
dent of the United States who, instead of looking after the 
welfare of his countrymen, has concerned himself with 
promoting the welfare of the Mexicans, with results so 
completely negative that it can be affirmed with entire 
truth that never has Mexico been poorer, hungrier and 
more oppressed by an anarchical and criminal faction than 
at this very day. (September, 1916.) The present Mexi- 
can Government — if it is to be called such — a creature of 
President Wilson, has been declared by Secretary 
Lansing "not worthy of the name, " since it has proved its 
"neglect" and its "failure" to fulfill "the j^aramount obli- 
gation for which governments are instituted," to-wit, "the 
protection of life and property." (Note of Secretary of 
State to Carranza, June 20th, 1916.) 

With the triumph of the "Constitutionalists" the 
object for which President Wilson took Vera Cruz, the ex- 
pulsion of Huerta, was attained. In reality, that object 
would have been fulfilled when the dictator left the coun- 
try in the hands of Mr. Carvajal. In any case, it was 
said that the whole country was dominated by the revo- 
lution when Carranza occupied the capital of the Republic 
in August, 1914, and, therefore, Vera Cruz, should have 
been delivered at that time by the American Govern- 
ment. 

The apparent explanation of the stay of the American 
troops in Vera Cruz after the triumph of "Constitutional- 
ism" was the rupture between Villa and Carranza. The 



34 

first demanded that the plan of the revolution should be 
complied with, which was the return to constitutional 
government, while Carranza pretended to continue being 
"First Chief" with unlimited powers. 

It was explicable that Mr. Wilson should be perplexed 
and that he should decide not to abandon the base which 
he was occupying in Mexican territory, when a second 
civil war was threatening between the same men for whose 
sake Vera Cruz had been occupied. Mr. Wilson then de- 
termined to send to Mexico, as his confidential agent, a 
learned and honorable man, acquainted with the country 
and who spoke the Spanish language with perfection, 
Mr. Paul Fuller. 

The report of Mr. Fuller justified the attitude of 
Villa. For the first time the bandit, — well advised by 
upright and patriotic men — had reason on his side. Every- 
one who may be acquainted with the opinions of Mr. 
Fuller knows that the latter condemned Carranza whom 
he declared "an impossibility," devoured by personal am- 
bition to rule. 

And this was natural and logical. Carranza could not 
at sixty and more years of age transform himself into an 
apostle of liberty and into a reformer. He had passed 
twenty-five years of his life serving with humility the 
man whom today he calls, with disdain, the Tyrant of 
Mexico, Porfirio Diaz. Carranza was a senator under the 
Government of Diaz and never did anything else in the 
Senate except to approve, without the slightest protest, 
the recommendations of that tyrant, whom today he de- 
nies. In the two years in which he was the Governor of 
the State of Coahuila, Carranza promoted nothing which 
would reveal him as the reformer which he now pretends 
to be, nor did he do anything for the political, moral or 
economic advancement of the people. 

Not only this, but Carranza, enemy of progressive 
innovations, was the only Governor who opposed having 
schools established in the States under the auspices of 



35 

the Federal Government, when President Madero, in 
execution of a law initiated in the time of Diaz, was try- 
ing to diffuse elementary instruction in a country in which 
eightj-five per cent of the population does not know how 
to read or write. 

This is the true Carranza, the man who, together with 
Villa received the aid of the United States in seizing the 
Government of Mexico. 

It was explicable, we repeat, that in view of the re- 
ports of Mr. Fuller and of the rupture between Villa and 
Carranza, President Wilson should hesitate to evacuate 
Vera Cruz. It would not, in effect, "have served the 
Mexicans," if he abandoned them in the midst of a fright- 
ful anarchy. 

But the Congressional elections were approaching in 
the United States and thus it was necessary to present a 
triumph of the policy of "watchful waiting." The Presi- 
dent announced on the 15th of September that Vera 
Cruz would be evacuated "in view of the entire removal 
of the circumstances which were thought to justify the 
occupation." The evacuation was carried through, never- 
theless, two months later when Carranza, fugitive before 
the pursuit of Villa, arrived at the Gulf coast and would 
soon have abandoned the country. President Wilson 
charged himself with saving him by delivering to him 
Vera Cruz. 

The iDOSsession of this imx^ortant port and of the region 
round-about permitted Carranza to rehabilitate himself, 
and his General Obregon to initiate an active campaign 
against Villa. Civil war was again kindled with savage 
fury. 

In the face of the horrors of this struggle and the ruin 
which it brought for the Mexican people. President Wil- 
son believed himself obliged to intervene again. With 
an innocent good faith which demonstrates his want of 
knowledge of the character of this class of contests in 
Latin- American countries, the President directed on June 



36 

2nd, 1915, a solemn admonition to the leaders of the 
divided "Constitutionalism," to whom he said: "I there- 
fore publicly and very solemnly call upon the leaders of 
faction in Mexico to act, to act together and to act 
promptly for the relief and redemption of their pros- 
trate country." 

Carranza and Villa, by way of reply, impressed upon 
the struggle a greater character of ferocity. When the 
results of the war began to be adverse to the faction of 
Villa, the latter addressed himself to the American Gov- 
ernment, stating his desire to comply with the admonition. 
Carranza, on his part, declared that he was not disposed 
to compromise with his enemies, nor to admit that Presi- 
dent Wilson should meddle with the internal affairs of 
Mexico. 

Lost in the labyrinth, Mr. Wilson called to his aid six 
countries of Latin-America. The plenipotentiaries ac- 
credited to Washington from Brazil, Chile, Argentina, 
Bolivia, Uruguay and Grautemala, were invited by the 
Secretary of State to a conference over the internal affairs 
of Mexico. 

We shall not make the tiresome relation of those nego- 
tiations, whose first result was a joint note from the seven 
countries directed to the chiefs of factions in Mexico in 
which the latter were invited to compose their differences 
in a pacific manner and to organize a Government in 
common accord. 

Although the concurrence of six Latin- American coun- 
tries made this act of intervention in Mexico's internal 
affairs a little less unpalatable for the Mexicans, Car- 
ranza remained inflexible and haughtily refused the invi- 
tation. The other chiefs of faction, for the most part, 
accepted it. 

To the surprise of everybody, the Government of the 
United States at this moment changed its attitude and 
resolved to recognize Carranza as the government de 
facto. This, as we shall see in the following chapter, 



37 

involved a stupendous contradiction of the principles 
which President Wilson had proclaimed, to the effect 
that he would not accept in Mexico a government which 
should not be in conformity with the constitution of the 
country. To reconcile this contradictory position, Secre- 
tary Lane, in his defense of the President (Interview in 
the New York World) asserts that the recognition of Car- 
ranza was unanimously recommended by the six countries 
of Latin- America, and that the United States yielded to 
their recommendations in deference to the Pan- American 
policy adopted by President Wilson. Very much against 
our will we must say that this is not correct. The opinion 
of the conference was profoundly divided; and, although 
one of the Latin-American representatives constituted 
himself a champion of "Carranzaism," it was the reiter- 
ated efforts of the American Government which deter- 
mined the resolution of the conference to recognize Car- 
ranza. 

It is not, therefore, legitimate to defend President 
Wilson in one of his most notable inconsistencies by 
throwing the initial responsibility for the recognition of 
Carranza upon those who, to proceed as they did, took 
into account the fact that the United States had a greater 
interest in Mexican affairs than any other nation what- 
ever, even if it were only for the fact that to the Govern- 
ment of Washington, alone, belongs the responsibility of 
being one of the determining factors of the frightful situ- 
ation of moral, economic and political ruin to which the 
Mexican people have been reduced. 



38 



CPIAPTER VI. 

OUGHT THE AMERICAN GOVEENMENT TO HAVE RECOG- 
NIZED CARRANZA '? 

To answer the question that is expressed in the above 
title, it is necessary to be acquainted with the principles 
that President Wilson had announced as to the class of 
government which, in his opinion, Mexico should have, 
and then to judge the recognition of Carranza in the light 
of those principles. 

« The fact must not be lost sight of that the President 
always considered Huerta a "usurper" and so designated 
him in various official documents. Mr. Wilson never ad- 
mitted that Huerta w^as a constitutional President. 

That Mr. Wilson could recognize as the Government 
of Mexico only one which should be organized in con- 
formity with the constitution of the country is revealed 
from the following declarations : 

I. In the message which the President read before the 
Congress on the 27th of August, 1913, he said : 

"America in particular — America north and 
south and upon both continents — waits upon the 
development of Mexico ; and that development can 
be sound and lasting only if it be the product of a 
genuine freedom, a just and ordered Government 
founded upon law * * * Mexico has a great and 
enviable future before her, if only she choose and 
attain the paths of honest constitutional govern- 
ment." 

II. On account of the violent dissolution of the Mexi- 
can Congress consummated by Huerta in October, 1913, 
Mr. John Lind made known to Huerta that President 
Wilson considered it necessary to organize immediately 
"a constitutional government." In the same communica- 
tion Mr. Lind indicated the convenience of the withdrawal 



39 

of Huerta in order to assure "absolute liberty of action 
in the restoration of constitutional power." 

III. In his message to Congress on December 2nd, 
1913, the President expressed himself thus : 

"We are the friends of constitutional govern- 
ment in America ; we are more than its friends, we 
are its champions; because in no other ivay can our 
neighbors work out their develo])mcnt in peace and 
liberty. MEXICO HAS NO GOVERNMENT." 

"We shall not, I believe, be obliged to alter our 
policy of watchful tvaiting. And then, when the 
end comes, we shall hope to see CONSTITUTION- 
AL ORDER restored in distressed Mexico by the 
concert and energy of such of her leaders as prefer 
the liberty of their people to their own ambitions." 

rV. Again, in his special message to Congress of the 
20th of April, 1914, the President said : 

"If we are to accept the tests of its own consti- 
tution (Mexico's) it has no government." 

V. On the 23rd of April, 1914, the President gave 
some declarations to the newspapers in which he asserted 
that he would respect the sovereignty of Mexico, and 
added : 

"The feeling and intention of the Government in 
this matter are not based upon policy. They go 
much deeper than that. They are based upon a 
genuine friendship for the Mexican people and a 
profound interest in the re-estahlishment of a con- 
stitutional system." 

VI. In his declarations in "The Saturday Evening 
Post" of the 23rd of May, 1914, the President expressed 
himself as follows : 

"In any event, we shall deem it our duty to 
help the Mexican people and we shall continue 



40 

until we have satisfactory knowledge that peace 
has been restored, that a constitutional government 
is reorganized, and that the way is open for the 
peaceful reorganization of that harassed country." 

VII. On the 18th of June, 1914, the American dele- 
gates to the conference of Niagara Falls gave the press 
some declarations among which appear the following 
statements : 

"To bring that war (Mexico's civil war) to a 
close, to restore peace and CONSTITUTIONAL 
GOVERNMENT, is the aim of the President." 

VIII. In the admonition of the 2nd of June, 1915, 
hereinbefore related (Chapter V), are found the following 
words : 

"But neither do they (the people of the United 
States) wish to see utter ruin come upon her 
(Mexico) and they deem it their duty as friends 
and neighbors to lend any aid they properly can to 
any instrumentality which promises to be effective 
in bringing about a settlement which will embody 
the real objects of the revolution, — CONSTITU- 
TIONAL GOVERNMENT and the rights of the 
people * * *, "It is time therefore that the 
Government of the United States should frankly 
state the policy which, in these extraordinary cir- 
cumstances, it becomes its duty to adopt. It must 
presently do what it has not hitherto done or felt 
at liberty to do, lend its active moral support to 
some man or group of men * * * ^ho can rally 
the suffering people of Mexico to their support in 
an effort to ignore, if they cannot unite, the warring 
factions of the countrv, RETURN TO THE CON- 
STITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC so long in 
abeyance and SET UP A GOVERNMENT AT 
MEXICO CITY which the great powers of the 
world can recognize/ 



}} 



41 

IX. On the 14tli of August, 1915, Secretary Lansing 
and the six Latin-American ambassadors and ministers 
directed to the Mexican factions — as has been said herein- 
before (Chapter V.), a joint invitation, drafted in the 
Department of State, and from which tlie following state- 
ments are transcribed: 

"We, the undersigned, believe that if the men 
directing the armed movements in Mexico — 
whether political or militar}' chiefs — should agree 
to meet, either in person or by delegates, far from 
the sound of cannon and with no other inspiration 
save the thought of their afflicted land, there to ex- 
change ideas and to determine the fate of the coun- 
try — from such action would undoubtedly result 
the strong and unyielding agreement requisite to 
the creation of a provisional government, which 
should adopt the first steps necessary to THE 
CONSTITUTIONAL RECONSTRUCTION of 
the country and to issue the first and most essetitial 
of them all, THE BIMEDIATE CALL TO GEN- 
ERAL ELECTIONS'.' 

The exhortations and demands of President Wilson 
have never concerned Carranza. Defaulting in the prom- 
ise which he made to the Mexicans at initiating the revo- 
lution — the re-establishment of constitutional government 
at the elimination of Huerta — Carranza has pretended to 
establish a dictatorship, by the side of which those of 
Santa Anna and Huerta appear like the ])lay of children. 

His first act upon triumphing was to close the tribunals 
of justice. From the few judges whom he has installed, 
he has exacted the oath of fulfilling and obeying the 
decrees of the "First Chief." 

He suspended the individual guaranties of the Con- 
stitution and, consequently, there is no recourse in Mexico 
against attacks upon liberty, life, property or the hearth- 
stone. 



42 

He permitted and authorized the most repugnant at- 
tacks upon religious liberty. 

He muzzled the press and permitted only the publica- 
tion of newspapers that flattered the First Chief and ap- 
plauded all his acts. 

He has prohibited, under severe penalties, every poli- 
tical meeting or association. 

He has issued not less than three decrees ivliich amend 
the Constitution, itself, of the Republic. 

He has disorganized the entire mechanism of the Gov- 
ernment and has arrogated to himself the right to issue 
fiduciary money, which has brought economic ruin upon 
the country and upon thousands of Mexicans and for- 
eigners. 

This was the character of the "Government" of Mexico 
in October, 1915, when it was accorded recognition. 

And Carranza did not conceal it. To the courteous 
note of the American Government and the six associated 
Latin- American Governments, in which he was requested 
to arrange his differences with the other chiefs of faction 
to the end that a constitutional government might be es- 
tablished in Mexico and elections might be held, Carranza 
answered in bombastic terms, declining the invitation and 
requiring that he should be recognized. Carranza reached 
the culmination of insolence when he sent to the Depart- 
ment of State a decree of his own, issued at Vera Cruz 
on the 12th of December, 1914, by which he assumes all 
the public powers and in which he invested himself ("the 
Chief of the Revolution is hereby expressly authorized," 
says the decree) with all the faculties that may be 
imagined, one of these being that of convoking, when Car- 
ranza may esteem it proper, a Congress to amend and 
ratify — it is not said whether it will also be able to re- 
voke — the military decrees which Carranza may issue!! 

President Wilson had said: "What Mexico needs is 
Constitutional government; Mexico has no government if 
the tests of its own constitution are to be accepted; my 



43 

aim is the restoration of constitutional government, be- 
cause in no other way can our neighbors work out their 
development in peace and liberty * * *" 

Carranza answered: "Neither constitutional govern- 
ment nor elections; I am above the Constitution; the 
country will return to legal rule when I may wish and as 
I may wish it. Recognize me!" 

And President Wilson recognized him. 

The recognition was made on the 19th of October, 
1915, in a letter not only courteous, but affectionate, which 
the Secretary of State directed to Senor Arredondo, Con- 
iidenial Agent of Carranza in Washington. 

Almost a year has passed since the date of the recog- 
nition and Mexico continues under the anarchical dictator- 
ship of Carranza. 

The latter, in order to make it believed that the coun- 
try is on the way of returning soon to legal rule, issued 
in July, 1916, a decree in which he orders that the muni- 
cipal power shall be reconstituted in the entire Republic 
(up to this time it has been abolished by Carranza) ; but 
the same decree disposes that every question regarding 
the validity of the elections of the members of the muni- 
cipal bodies or councils, shall be decided by the respective 
military governor named by Carranza ! 

He has also issued a decree for the re-establishment 
of the lower courts of Federal justice; but in the same 
decree he declares that the individual guaranties shall re- 
main suspended, as well as the Constitution, and, there- 
fore, the Federal Courts will not be able to decide any 
question in accordance with the Constitution. 

Considering that Mr. Wilson graciously consented, by 
recognizing Carranza, to subvert all his principles insisted 
upon during two years, it might be thought that, for other 
reasons, Carranza was entitled to recognition. For ex- 
ample, it might be sui)])Osed that, arbitrary as it is, the 
power of Carranza was respectable for its morality and 
efficiency. Let us clear up this question, judging the 



44 

recognition in the light of the official documents of the 
American Government itself. 

The following passages are copied from the note which 
Secretary Lansing directed to the Minister of Foreign 
Relations of the "Government de facto," on June 20th, 
1916: 

"The Government of the United States has 
viewed with deep concern and increasing disap- 
pointment the progress of the revolution in Mex- 
ico. Continuous bloodshed and disorders have 
marked its progress. For three years the Mexican 
Republic has been torn with civil strife; the lives 
of Americans and other aliens have been sacrificed ; 
vast properties develaped by American capital and 
enterprise have been destroyed or rendered non- 
productive ; bandits have been permitted to roam at 
will through the territory contiguous to the United 
States and to seize, without punishment or without 
effective attempt at punishment, the property of 
Americans, while the lives of citizens of the United 
States who ventured to remain in Mexican terri- 
tory or to return there to protect their interests 
have been taken, and in some cases barbarously 
taken, and the murderers have neither been appre- 
hended nor brought to justice. It would be difficult 
to find in the annals of the history of Mexico con- 
ditions more deplorable than those which have ex- 
isted there during these recent years of civil war." 

As it is seen, the picture of the situation in Mexico 
which Mr. Lansing makes comprehends the last three 
years and, therefore, Carranza was recognized as a Gov- 
ernment when the most horrible anarchy was reigning in 
Mexico and it was not proper to say that there was any 
Government. 



45 

Secretary Lansing continues : 

"It would be tedious to recount instance after 
instance, outrage after outrage, atrocity after 
atrocity to illustrate the true nature and extent of 
the widespread conditions of lawlessness and vio- 
lence which have prevailed. During the past nine 
months in particular * * *" 

(As is to be supposed, given the date of the note, this 
period of nine mouths had already begun to run when 
recognition was granted, which was on the 19th of Octo- 
ber, 1915). 

"During the past nine months in particular the 
frontier of the United States along the lower R'lo 
Grande has been thrown into a state of constant 
apprehension and turmoil because of frequent and 
sudden incursions into American territory and dep- 
redations and murders on American soil by Mexi- 
can bandits, who have taken the lives and destroyed 
the property of American citizens, sometimes 
carrying x\merican citizens across the international 
boundary with the booty seized. American garri- 
sons have been attacked at night, American soldiers 
killed and their equipment and horses stolen; 
American ranches have been raided, property 
stolen and destroyed and American trains wrecked 
and plundered. The attacks on Brownsville, Red 
House Ferry, Progreso Post Office and Las Pe- 
ladas, all occurring during September last ore 
typical." 

Observe that these typical attacks occurred in Septem- 
ber, during the month preceding the recognition. 

But the most interesting thing is what Mr. Lansing 
adds: "In these attacks on American territorj', Carran- 
cista adherents, and even Carrancista soldiers took part 
in the looting, burning and killing." 



46 

Mr. Lansing continues : "Not only were these nmrders 
characterized by ruthless brutality, but uncivilized acts 
of mutilation were perpetrated. Representations were 
made to General Carranza and he was emphatically re- 
quested to stop these reprehensible acts in a section which 
he lias long claimed to he wider the co^nplete domination 
of his authority. Notwithstanding these representations 
and the promise of General Nafarrate to prevent attacks 
along the international boundary, in the following month 
of October * * *" 

Note well that this was in the month of October, to- 
wit, in the month of the recognition. 

"* * * in the following month of October a passen- 
ger train was wrecked by bandits and several persons 
killed seven miles north of Brownsville, and an attack 
was made upon United States troops at the same place 
several days later. Since these attacks, leaders of the 
bandits tuell known both to Mexican civil and military 
authorities, as well as to American officers, have been 
enjoying with impunity the liberty of the towns of north- 
ern Mexico. So far has the indifference of the de facto 
Government to these atrocities gone, that some of these 
leaders, as 1 am advised, have received not only the pro- 
tection of that Government, BUT ENCOURAGEMENT 
AND AID AS WELL." 

It thr.s appears that Carranza was recognized in the 
precise moment in which his own soldiers were committing 
sackage, incendiarism and homicides on American terri- 
tory; when the authors of these outrages were passing 
thereafter to Mexico and were enjoying impunity and 
liberty, notwithstanding their being Imown to the Carran- 
cista authorities; and when the so-called government de 
facto and its subordinates not only manifested indifference 
for these acts, but were encouraging and aiding the 
bandits. 

How can the recognition be justified under these con- 
ditions, if all the circumstances proved that Carranza 



47 

could be the chief of a band of malefactors, but never the 
head of a government! 

But the note of Secretary Lansing explains his 
enigma : 

"When the superiority of the revolutionary 
faction led by General Carranza became undoubted, 
the United States, after conferring with six others 
of the American Eepublics, recognized uncondition- 
ally the present de facto Government." 

The first thing that occurs to us to observe is that the 
circumstance that one revolutionary faction may be su- 
perior to others that exist in the country, is not a rational 
motive for declaring that faction to be the government of 
the country. A faction as, with justice, Mr. Lansing calls 
"Carranzaism," is not and cannot be a government. 

Now let us see that what, in reality, took place was, 
that Mr. Wilson proposed to experiment with Carranza; 
and even when common sense counselled him to postpone 
recognition until the experiment, as made, should result 
favorably, Mr. Wilson did the very reverse. "It (the 
United States) hoped that that Government (Carranza's) 
would speedily restore order and provide the Mexican 
people and others, who had given their energy and sub- 
stance to the development of the great resources of that 
Republic, opportunity to rebuild in peace and security 
their shattered fortunes." 

Naturally, the experiment resulted in a gigantic fiasco, 
which makes Secretary Lansing say, with melancholy 
disillusion: "This Government has waited month after 
month for the consummation of its hope and expectation." 

It appears incredible that Carranza should have been 
recognized as the Government only in the "hope" and 
under the "expectation" that he might be able to come to 
be a government. 



48 

We would recall here the phrase of Horace — "risum 
teneatis" — if it were not for the tragic results which the 
blind measures of the American Government have pro- 
duced for a country, before prosperous and respectable, 
and now the object of universal commiseration. 

To flatter his chief, the distinguished Secretary of the 
Interior, Mr. Lane, declared : "President Wilson's Mexi- 
can policy is one of the things of which I am most proud ;" 
but he will be able to make only fools, or those who are 
unacquainted with the President's course, believe that 
that policy has been "definite and consistent, firm and con- 
structive." 



49 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE FIEST COXSEQUENCES OF THE RECOGNITION — SANTA 

ISABEL AND COLUMBUS. 

Wlioever may have read the chapter immediately pre- 
ceding will have been convinced that upon declaring that 
Carranzaism was Government, President Wilson forgot 
that famous aphorism of his, — "If we are to accept the 
tests of its own constitution, Mexico has no Government." 
Let us apply, in effect, the "tests" of the constitution of 
Mexico to that "First Chief," who has invested himself 
with all the powers, including that of amending the con- 
stitution, and we will have to conclude with Mr. Wilson 
that "Mexico has no Government." The constitution of 
Mexico, it will be understood, is a copy of that of the 
United States. 

Carranza is trying to govern Mexico, not as provisional 
President, or with any other character that may have 
some appearance of constitutional function, but simply 
as "First Chief," like a "Sheik" who rules despotically 
over a tribe of Bedouins. 

If that Sheik had at any time exercised control of the 
country, preserving order "in fact," which is the basis of 
all organization, President Wilson would have had some 
excuse for declaring him a government "de facto;" but 
we have already seen in the preceding cha])ter that when 
Carranza was recognized he was only the chief of a faction 
and that he was declared a government de facto, not be- 
cause he was such, but because Mr. Wilson had the hope 
that he might become such. 

The act of recognizing Carranza was not indeed in- 
spired, like the occupation of Vera Cruz, by the purpose 
of "serving humanity," but by another purpose more pro- 
saic and business-like. It was necessary, in effect, to pre- 
sent to the new American Congress, which was to be 



50 

convened in December (1915) and whose political composi- 
tion revealed a change in the public sentiment, something 
which would signify a radical modification of the ridiculed 
policy of "ivatchful waiting." It was important also to 
make the public believe that the efforts of the President 
had produced the admirable result that Mexico finally had 
a Government. To completely confuse public opinion, 
came, as from a mould, the complacent and solicited co- 
operation of six Latin- American countries. 

The President nevertheless, had the franlmess to con- 
fess that he was making a new experiment. "Wliether 
we have benefited Mexico, by the course we have pursued, 
remains to he seen," he said, in his message to Congress 
on the 7th of December, 1915. 

The new experiment resulted in a new fiasco, as the note 
of Secretary Lansing, analyzed in the preceding chapter, 
proves. 

The problem which President Wilson tried to resolve, 
with the recognition of Carranza, was complicated by a 
factor which it was indispensable to eliminate. We refer 
to Francisco Villa. The President did not hesitate to de- 
clare war on him, and Villa took up the glove. 

It is worth while to relate the history of the relations 
of the Government of the United States with the famous 
Mexican bandit ; but we shall make only a brief recapitula- 
tion of that history, indispensable for comprehending the 
present state of the international situation of Mexico. 

The revolution which Carranza headed acquired mili- 
tary importance, thanks to the soldierly qualities of Fran- 
cisco Villa. The triumphs of the latter attracted to his 
person universal attention. The bandit was transformed 
into a general, and began to be officially designated with 
tLls title by the American Government. 

The personality of Villa was acquiring international 
character, xistute and ambitious, he comprehended that 
it was important for him to gain the good-will of the 
United States and to exploit in his behalf the unfavorable 



51 

impression whicli Carranza was causing in Washington 
by his obstinacy and want of malleability. Villa, on his 
part, showed himself always complacent and lost no op- 
portunity of flattering President Wilson and Secretary 
Bryan. 

From all this resulted a preference, constantly more 
accentuated, on the part of the Government of the United 
States toward Francisco Villa, to whom was shown the 
honor of attaching to him an American Confidential Agent, 
who accompanied him everj^iere. And this was not due, 
surely, to a transformation in the criminal spirit of Villa ; 
but Carranza showed himself so incapable and imper- 
tinent, that the Government at Washington began to be- 
lieve that in the bandit-general Mexico must i)lace its 
hopes of redemption. "The one-time bandit has become 
a military genius; why not a peacemaker and a states- 
man?" said the daily, most friendly to the Administration, 
illustrating its editorial with a cartoon, in which Mr. 
Wilson extends his hand to the bandit. (The New York 
World, June 22, 1914.) 

Secretary Bryan, on his part, was coquetting with the 
assassin of the Englishman, Benton, and of the American, 
Bauch. On the 2nd of September (1914), upon Villa's 
return from Sonora where he had gone on a pacifying 
mission, Mr. Bryan telegraphed him, sending him "the 
sincere thanks" of the American Goverament, and adding 
these words: "Your patient labors in this matter are 
greatly appreciated by the State Department and the 
President.' ' 

To such extremes did this singular attitude arrive, 
that the well-informed — if not inspired — correspondent of 
the New York World in Washington, said on the 23rd 
of November (1914), "President Wilson has great faith 
in Villa's ability to handle the situation." 

But if these and other data which we could present 
were not sufficient indication of the symjiathy of the 
American Government for Villa, we refer to the si^eecli de- 



52 

livered on the 4tli of August, 1916, by Senator James 
Hamilton Lewis, "Democratic whip of the Senate," in 
which, by way of defense of the policy of President Wil- 
son, he asserted that the latter was on the point of recog- 
nizing Villa "as a test and trial;" a statement which 
throws to the ground the principal argument of those who 
defend the conduct of the President towards Huerta as 
highly moral, since if the latter was considered an assas- 
sin, Villa was notoriously such and on a greater scale. 

With the antecedents which we have just pointed out it 
is not surprising that the Government of the United 
States should carry its attentions toward the bandit to 
the extreme of sending to him, as special ambassador, no 
less a person than the Chief of Staff of the American 
Army. This happened in August, 1915. 

Villa had dictated a series of confiscatory decrees and 
was trying to obtain from the mining companies that 
operated in his territory a large advance in cash. The 
Washington Government resolved, contrary to its custom, 
to protect the American companies affected by these ini- 
quitous decrees of Villa ; but instead of boldly taking an 
attitude against him, which would have been in consonance 
with the dignity of the United States, it resolved to treat 
him as an equal and it imposed upon General Scott the 
humiliating mission of going to appease the brigand. 
Villa considered the American general as his "colleague" 
and received him with honors when Scott passed over to 
Juarez to present his respects to Villa. The honors were 
reciprocated on the following day by the forces of the 
United States, when the Mexican "general" went to El 
Paso to pay a visit to General Scott. The object of the 
trip of the latter was, indeed, fruitful, since Villa revoked 
some of his arbitrary decrees ; but the spirit of the bandit 
was inflated with pride at feeling himself considered as of 
the necessary importance to have sent to him, as a pro- 
curator, the first figure in the American Army. 

Such was the condition of the relations between the 



53 

Washington Government and Francisco Villa when the 
Department of State, assisted by the representatives of 
six Latin-American countries directed to Carranza, to 
Villa and to the other chiefs of faction, joint notes, in- 
viting them to compose their differences and to form a 
government by common accord. ( Chapter V. ) 

Villa accepted, with good will, the invitation and 
named his delegates, who immediately proceeded to Wash- 
ington. It was beyond all doubt that Villa still dominated 
an important portion of the northern part of the Mexican 
Republic, and could not rationally be considered as an 
insignificant factor in the political entanglement of 
Mexico. 

A few weeks later, to the great surprise of Villa and 
of everybody, Carranza was recognized. Not even was the 
courtesy shown of first withdrawing the joint invitation 
to which Villa had given such prompt acceptance. The 
wild beast felt the humiliation in all its cruel intensity. 
How, after having been the depositary of the hopes of the 
American Government, after having always had at his 
side a confidential representative of President Wilson, 
after being called a military genius by the press of the 
United States, after, in fine, having had sent to him Gen- 
eral Scott as ambassador, and after the soldiers of the 
United States had presented arms to him, was he now 
repudiated, in discourteous form, unceremoniously, and 
his rival Carranza recognized as the ruler of Mexico? 

In fact, however odious may be the personality of 
Villa, the conduct of the American Government was, at 
least, illogical. 

It was, also, imprudent. Villa represented a force, 
an infernal force, which would surely be turned against 
his former protector. 

President Wilson must have comprehended this and 
he determined to aid Carranza in order that the latter 
might crush Villa with rapidity. 

The first thing he did was to establish an embargo 



54 

upon arms and munitions in resiDect to the ports of the 
frontier which Villa still held in his possession. 

The second thing was to permit Carranza to convert 
the territory of the United States into a strategic base 
for his operations against Villa. Thus upon his arrival at 
the frontier town of Agua-Prieta, with the purpose of 
taking it, Villa found the Carranza garrison formidably 
reinforced with fresh troops. These troops had been sent 
rapidly through territory of the United States and upon 
American railroads, at the same time that the forces of 
Villa were moving slowly and laboriously along the rough 
highways of Chihuahua and Sonora. 

Villa felt himself lost. In face of the attitude of the 
Washington Government, the Villa troops began to desert. 
His generals went over to Carranza or sought refuge in 
the United States. The indignation of the bandit knew 
no limits and he swore vengeance. To his criminal spirit 
there were no distinctions. He thought to avenge him- 
self upon President Wilson as well by sacrificing the lives 
of innocent, peaceful Americans, as by assaulting a camp 
of American troops. The eighteen victims who were 
butchered at Santa Isabel, those who fell in the Columbus 
raid, are victims immolated upon the altars of the im- 
prudent friendship of Mr. Wilson for Carranza. 

The President cannot consider himself fortunate in 
his Mexican adventure. Each step of his has brought 
with it some disaster, when not bloody hecatombs. 



55 



CHAPTER VIII. 

FROM COLUMBUS TO CARRIZAL. 

How to satisfy imblic opinion, justly outraged by the 
Columbus "raid?"* 

If a party of Canadian bandits bad assaulted and 
sacked a settlement in North Dakota, President Wilson 
would not have sent against the malefactors a punitive 
expedition. If an American bandit had sacked a settle- 
ment in Manitoba, the Canadian government would not 
have sent in his pursuit a punitive expedition. 

It is clearly seen, in either one of these two cases, that 
it would have been an attack against the sovereignty of 
the respective countries to send from the neighboring coun- 
try a punitive expedition. The people of the United States 
would never consent to this attack. Much less would they 
tolerate the entrance into the United States in pursuit of 
a malefactor, of a column of eight or ten thousand sol- 
diers of the Canadian Army and that, after having lost 
the trail of the fugitive, the column, instead of returning 
to Canada, for failure of the object of the expedition, 
should station itself indefinitely ui)on American soil and 
establish a formal camp from a hundred to a hundred and 
fifty miles south of the dividing line. 

But, Oh, human injustice! that which would not be 
tolerated from the neighbor on the north, is practiced on 
the neighbor of the south. What would be considered an 
offense, if it were a question of suffering it, is held as a 
permissible act when it is a case of doing it. 

The act is more censurable and less honorable to the 



*XoTR. As is well known, a party of the followers of Villa fell upon 
Columbus, New Mexico, on the morning of the 9th of -Marrh, lOH!, 
surprisinc: a strong detachment of T^nite;! States troops which were 
encamped there. The Villaistas were obliged to retire, )>ut after having 
sacked and burned the principal part of the town and having killed and 
wounded a large number of persons. 



56 

one who executes it, when the victim is weak and lacks 
the forces to compel respect for the inviolability of its 
territory. 

According to the position taken by the United States, 
Mexico has a government, recognized unconditionally. It 
is the fault of the Washington government that it de- 
clared to be a government of Mexico, what was simply an 
instrument of tyranny, disorganized and, at the same time, 
impotent ; but the honor and self-respect of the American 
government — apart from what the theories of interna- 
tional law may provide — clearly indicated its duty after 
the attack on Columbus. That duty was alternative: 
either to exact from Carranza the pursuit of the male- 
factors, who had fled to Mexican soil, and their arrest and 
delivery to the authorities of the United States; or, in- 
deed, if Carranza was considered impotent to fulfill these 
fundamental obligations, to break all relations with the 
"de facto government" and to dispatch the punitive ex- 
pedition, leaving upon Carranza the responsibility of de- 
claring war if he did not accept the sending of the ex- 
pedition. 

But what could not be done without committing an at- 
tack against the principles of international law, was to 
resolve upon the dispatch of the punitive expedition with- 
out either obtaining the consent of the "de facto govern- 
ment" or breaking off relations with it. 

On the following day after the "raid" this resolution 
of the President of the United States was published : "An 
adequate force will be sent at once in pursuit of Villa with 
the single object of capturing Mm and putting a stop to 
his forays." The resolution added — what was a cruel 
sarcasm — that the punitive expedition would be conducted 
with scrupulous respect to the sovereignty of Mexico. 

It has been said — even by President Wilson himself — 
that the punitive expedition was sent in virtue of an 
agreement with the "government de facto." This is an 



57 

error, notorious to everyone who may have studied this 
unfortunate incident. In any case, and even had there 
been a subsequent agreement, the fact is that when the 
President made kno^^^l to the public that he would dis- 
patch the punitive expedition, Carranza had not only not 
been consulted, but not even notified. 

But if the expedition was an attack from the point of 
view of international law, it was useless from a practical 
standpoint. General Pershing was to "capture" Villa, 
and the latter, six months later, is laughing at his pur- 
suers and harassing the Carranzistas with impunity. 

It is surprising that it should not occur to a man as 

intelligent as President Wilson to think that with the 
advantage of six or eight days, which was given to Villa — 
the time which, as will be remembered, it took General 
Pershing to prepare himself — it would be impossible to 
overtake a bandit, audacious, astute, acquainted as no one 
else with the complicated topography of the region, ac- 
customed to live perpetually as a fugitive, and who could 
count, moreover, on the sympathy of the native pop- 
ulation. 

And then, what limits would the expedition have? 
Would it go, if it should be necessary, to the frontier of 
Guatemala? 

Very soon the dif&culties of the undertaking began to 
appear. 

Carranza, who had never consented to the expedition, 
nevertheless did not have the force to repel it, in conse- 
quence of which he limited himself to placing very kind 
of difficulty in its way, and to these, on its part, the Ameri- 
can government submitted with meekness. The expedition 
was marching between two lines of railroad, but was not 
permitted to use either of them, Carranza prohibited it 
from entering towns, and it did not enter. But, in s}>ite 
of all, it continued to advance until it had to halt and 



58 

double back when its advances were opposed by the Car- 
rancista force in Parral. 

At this point the government of Washington should 
have opened its eyes and, recognizing with valor and 
honor the position, at once ridiculous and perilous, in 
which it had been placed, it should have ordered the return 
of General Pershing to the United States. 

Because if the expedition were useless, as, in effect, it 
was, why insist upon it I 

On the contrary, if the expedition were useful and le- 
gitimate, why not then carry it forward, cost what it 
might, as becomes a government which esteems its own 
dignity? 

But Mr. Wilson chose a middle course. He neither 
withdrew the column nor did he permit it to go forward 
for the purpose of "capturing Villa," for which it had 
been dispatched. 

Later we shall try to present the only possible expla- 
nation of this contradictory and ungraceful position: the 
personal political interests of Mr. Wilson. 

In honor of the truth, Carranza did what he could, 
considering his situation of extreme weakness, to obtain 
the withdrawal of the useless punitive expedition, whose 
continuation in Mexico is a constant offence to the pa- 
triotic sentiment of the Mexicans. Forced by this senti- 
ment, Carranza notified the Washington government of 
his intention to forcibly resist any attempt whatever of 
the column of General Pershing to advance. 

The Department of State, in a very solemn tone, made 
known to Carranza that any act of force whatever on his 
part would bring the "gravest consequences"; but Car- 
ranza, who knew, as all the world does, the innocuousness 
of this high sounding diplomatic literature of the De- 
I^artment of State, gave orders to his military chiefs to 
resist any advance of the American forces. 



59 

The result of all tins was the combat of Carrizal, in 
whicli a small xVmerican column was destroyed with sens- 
ible loss of life for both i)arties. The "gravest conse- 
quences" which this jjractical demonstration of Carranza's 
earnestness produced were a declaration of the Secretary 
of State, in a note dated two weeks after the occurrence 
of Carrizal (July 7th), in which he speaks of the spirit 
of frie)idship and solicitude which animates the American 
government for the continuation of cordial relations be- 
tween both governments ! ! 



60 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE CRUEL SIDE OF THE POLICY OF MR. WILSON. 

On the 14tli of March, 1912, the Congress of the United 
States enacted a law in the following terms : , 

"That whenever the President shall tind that in any- 
American country conditions of domestic violence exist 
which are promoted by the use of arms or munitions of 
war procured from the United States, and shall make pro- 
clamation thereof, it shall be unlawful to export except 
under such limitations and exceptions as the President 
shall prescribe, any arms or munitions of war from any 
place in the United States to such country * * *." 

This law, as is seen, is not imperative, since it leaves 
to the President's discretion to establish an embargo when 
he may judge that a state of "domestic violence" is fo- 
mented by the use of war materials of American origin. 
But, in spite of this, the spirit of the law is clear. 

The Congress wished, in effect, to afford to the Presi- 
dent — who is the one person better than anybody else that 
can have knowledge of t^e circumstances of the case — 
a prompt means of preventing revolts in the neighboring 
coimtries, so far as these revolts may be sustained with 
arms and ammunition which the insurgents might acquire 
in the United States. This law establishes a justified form 
of intervention by abstention; it is inspired by humani- 
tarian principles and tends to prevent American manu- 
facturers of arms and ammunition from enriching them- 
selves at the expense of the bloodshed and ruin produced 
by the frequent revolutions which are the curse of the 
Latin- American countries. 

For a man as humanitarian as President Wilson, this 
law should have been a precious instrument with which 
to realize peace in Mexico. President Taft decreed the 
embargo of war materials when Pascual Orozco rebelled 



61 

in the State of Cbiliiialiua against President Madero ; but 
President Wilson — as we have seen — in tlie beginning of 
the year 1914, raised the embargo which was impeding 
the development of the "Constitutionalist" revolution. In 
his eagerness to destroy Huerta, he did not consider that 
the one immediately favored by the cancellation of the 
embargo, was Francisco Villa, then the most important 
figure in the revolution. Neither did President Wilson 
reflect that Villa and the other Carranzista generals were 
paying for their arms and ammunition with the products 
of robbery and confiscation, practiced on a gigantic scale 
upon Mexicans and foreigners. 

Neither the immoral despoliation of the property of 
others, nor the immoral enrichment of the speculators in 
war materials, nor the cruel and inhuman form which the 
struggle had taken, moved President Wilson. "The end 
justifies the means," he must have said. The end was to 
overthrow Huerta. 

That end was realized, as we have explained in an- 
other chapter. The country was in the hands of the 
"Constitutionalists," and it was to be expected that the 
activities of the President — if he still persisted in med- 
dling in the internal affairs of Mexico — would have to 
be directed to favoring the re-establishment of order in 
the destroyed country. 

Nevertheless, the division in the revolutionary files 
having supervened, Mr. Wilson, notwithstanding the un- 
favorable reports which he had of Carranza and notwith- 
standing his open sympathy for Villa, delivered to Carran- 
za the port of Vera Cruz, which resulted in kindling the 
civil war anew, which the President could have avoided by 
simply holding for a little longer time the port of Vera 
Cruz. With incredible hardness of heart, Mr. AVilson 
sacrificed evervthing to his personal political interests. 
(See Chapter V.) 

The struggle between the Carranzistas and the Con- 
ventionists (of which hitter group Villa was the head) 



62 

assumed a character of terrible cruelty. Those combat- 
ants did not appear to fight against their enemies, but 
against the immense pacific population. Everyone, who 
may have followed the changes of this drama, knows the 
infinite number of attacks upon the honor of women, upon 
religion, upon propertj^ and upon life. A savage struggle 
in which the Yaquis, barbarous and sanguinary, who 
formed a part of the hosts of Carranza, the criminals, 
taken from all the j^risons, the Mexican Indian, ignorant 
and avid for blood and rapine, who formed the bulk of 
the combatants, satisfied their instincts of bestial ferocity 
at the expense of fifteen millions of human beings. 

Hunger and pestilence increased the ravages of war. 
The military chiefs made scandalous fortunes, and what 
they did not appropriate to themselves was sent to the 
United States to the voracious speculators, who were paid 
with the bread and tears of the Mexican, peoj^le for the 
arms and ammunition which sustained that infernal 
conflict. 

Read the reports of the Red Cross; examine the of- 
ficial data with which the Department of State is stuffed, 
and it will be seen that while thousands of women and 
children were dying for lack of food, cargoes of corn, 
beans, of live stock, and all that could satisfy hunger, 
went out of the Mexican ports and of the frontier cities 
to be converted into rifles and cartridges, into instru- 
ments of destruction. 

Had there ever been a more patent case of "Domestic 
violence," sustained by American arms and ammunition? 
There could not be, and there was not, any other source 
from which they joroceeded, since the European war had 
closed the other markets. One word of President Wilson 
would have sufficed to put an end to that catastrophe, 
snatching the deadly instrument from the hands which 
wielded it. No longer was it the case of overthrowing the 
"usurper," but that of truly serving humanity and the 
Mexican people whom the President had declared, by 



63 

conduct of the "Saturday Evening Post," the favorite 
object of his "passion." 

Not only did he do nothing which was legally in his 
hand to do to remedy, or even to alleviate this situation, 
but, indeed, with an unconsciousness — we will call it so — 
that stuns, the President said at Indianapolis, on the 8th 
of January, 1915: "Do you suppose that the American 
people are ever going to count a small amount of ma- 
terial benefit and advantage to people doing business in 
Mexico, against the liberties and the permanent happiness 
of the Mexican people?" But did the President forget 
those who were doing "business" in Mexico in selling 
arms and ammunition to the factions? Mr. Wilson al- 
luded to the American miners, to the American agricul- 
turists, to Americans engaged in other industries in Mex- 
ico who had seen their legitimate business ruined by the 
civil war. Let these suffer ! but let the sellers of rifles and 
mitrailleuses and cartridges prosper! 

After all, that odious contest was a thing deemed 
worthy of respect by one who "serves humanity." "Shall 
we deny the Mexicans the right to spill as much blood 
as they please!" added the President. 

Nevertheless, Mr. AVilson, always inconsistent, changed 
his position some months afterward and suddenly denied 
the ]\rexicans the right to continue "spilling" their blood. 
Perhap's the President was convinced of what he had not 
wished to see — that that contest was not "for the liberty 
and permanent happiness of the Mexican people," but for 
the satisfaction of the ambitions of two men, Carranza 
and Villa, in the face of the impotence of an unanned and 
hungry people. 

On the 2nd of June, 1915, the President launched a 
severe admonition to the factions, menacing them with 
intervention. 

"For more than two years," said Mr. Wilson, "revolu- 
tionary conditions have existed in Mexico. The pur]iose 
of the revolution was to rid ]\rexico of men who ignored 



64 

the constitution of the republic and used their power in 
contempt of the rights of its people, and with these pur- 
poses the people of the United States instinctively and 
generously sympathized. But the leaders of the revolu- 
tion, in the very hour of their success, have disagreed and 
turned their arms against one another. 

"All professing the same objects, they are, neverthe- 
less, unable or unwilling to co-operate. A central author- 
ity at Mexico City is no sooner set up than it is under- 
mined and its authority denied by those who were expected 
to support it. 

"Mexico is apparently no nearer a solution of her 
tragical troubles than she was when the revolution was 
first kindled. And she has been swept by civil war as if 
by fire. Her croi3s are destroyed, her fields lie unseeded, 
her work cattle are confiscated for the use of the armed 
factions, her people flee to the mountains to escape being 
drawn into unavailing bloodshed, and no man seems to see 
or lead the way to peace and settled order. There is no 
proper protection either for her own citizens or for the 
citizens of other nations resident and at work within her 
territory. Mexico is starving and without a governmerd." 

And, indeed, after recognizing the awful condition of 
Mexico in terms as pathetic as exact, the President con- 
tinued to abstain from taking the first and most obvious 
measure that the circumstances imposed: the embargo of 
arms and ammunition. The President announced that, 
if the factions did not make peace, "this government will 
be constrained to decide what means should be employed 
by the United States." That is to say, the President threat- 
ened intervention in Mexico, an illegal act which did not 
come within his constitutional faculties ; and, on the other 
hand, indulged himself in failing to do what, indeed, was 
legal and legitimate, — to deprive or entirely cut off from 
the factions the means of carrying on the diabolical work 
of destruction! 

Not even the most enthusiastic defenders of the ab- 



65 

surdities of President Wilson's policy in Mexico, such as 
Secretary Lane, have had a word of justification for that 
cruel and inhuman attitude of the President, for his in- 
difference to the suft'erings of the Mexican people, for his 
undissimulated delight in having the Mexicans continue 
"spilling their blood" with the arms which the President, 
himself, virtually furnished to them. 

Even the most pathetic situations customarily have 
their comic side. We have just seen how the President, 
in his Indianapolis speech and in his admonition of the 
2nd of June, recognized the existence in Mexico of a ter- 
rible condition of "domestic violence." 

But the President had never taken into account the fact 
that this condition was fomented by arms and ammunition 
obtained in the United States ! A providential revelation, 
a voice from Heaven made known to the President this 
circumstance on the same day in which he recognized the 
Carranza faction as the government de facto! That very- 
day — October 19th, 1915 — the President issued a procla- 
mation establishing an embargo. Then, and only then, 
was enforced the law, or joint resolution, of the Congress, 
cited in the first paragraph of this chapter. It w^as then 
that Mr. Wilson discovered that there had been a condition 
of violence in Mexico, fomented by American arms and 
munitions. Then, at last, he decided to restrain the "spill- 
ing of blood." For this purpose a proclamation was issued 
which says : "I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United 
States of America, do hereby declare and proclaim, THAT 
I HAVE FOUND (Sic!) that there exists in Mexico such 
conditions of domestic violence promoted by the use of 
arms and munitions procured from the United States as 
contemplntod by tlie said Joint licsolution * * *". 
Therefore, the President prohibits, under the penalties of 
the law, the exportation of arms and ammunition to 
Mexico. 

Of course, this prohibition was not ap])licable to Car- 
ranza. At the same time that he issued the proclamation, 



66 

the President ordered the Secretary of the Treasury to 
permit the "government de facto" to import as many arms 
and cartridges as it might wish. 

This it was that permitted Carranza, first at Parral 
and afterwards at Carrizal, to kill several officers and sol- 
diers of the army of the United States with American 
arms and ammunition. 



§7 



CHAPTER X. 

PECUNIARY RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE A:MERICAN PEOPLE. 

"Non-intervention in tlie internal affairs of a sister State 
is the fundamental basis of national inde})endence, and 
as such is the first principle of the system of international 
law noiv professed hy the society of States," says a dis- 
tinguished American professor of international law. 

No country can violate this principle with impunity, 
and, if it does violate it, the pecuniary damages which 
may be the consequence of the violation are to be charged 
to the country that commits the infraction. 

From the moment in which President AVilson began to 
intervene in the interior affairs of Mexico, there was born 
for the United States the correlative obligation of indem- 
nifying all those who suffered in their persons and inter- 
ests as a consequence of the acts of intervention. 

As President Wilson acted in his official character and 
in exercise of the power of the United States, no one 
will be able to say that the pecuniary res])onsibilities 
alluded to are not to be charged to the United States. 

It belongs, then, to the American people to pay the 
account of the adventure of their President in Mexico. 

The interventionist policy of President Wilson has 
caused, from the pecuniary point of view, two kinds of 
damages: the indirect, which are ascertainable with diffi- 
culty and which, therefore, only involve a moral and his- 
torical responsibility; and the direct, which, indeed, can 
be estimated in dollars and cents. The latter are those 
which the American tax payer will have to pay sooner or 
later. 

The damages of the first kind indicated are, in tnith, 
incommensurable. When President Wilson began to take 
a hostile attitude in respect to the government presided 
over by Huerta, business men, principally the foreigners 



68 

who had capital invested in Mexico, began to fear for 
the fate of their investments. These fears took the char- 
acter of a veritable panic when Mr. Wilson, by unequi- 
vocal acts, signified his purpose to destroy Huerta and to 
cause the revolution to triumph. 

Indeed, no one could, from that moment, have confi- 
dence in the country. Huerta was considered, in spite of 
his defects, as a man capable of preserving order and, 
therefore, of causing property to be respected. His gov- 
ernment inspired such confidence in its first days that 
without difficulty he succeeded in placing a loan of one 
hundred and fifty millions with the great banks of Europe. 

But when it was seen that his government was sen- 
tenced to death by President "Wilson (see Chapter HI) 
and that the formidable power of the United States was 
placed on the side of the revolution, everybody sought the 
means of protecting his interests. It was indeed a "save 
himself who can." 

No one could have confidence in the revolution, be- 
cause in this there dominated that which dominates in all 
Latin- American revolutions : the personal ambition of one, 
or various men to possess themselves of the government. 
Only Mr. Wilson, who appears ignorant of the psychology 
of this kind of revolts, could believe that it was the con- 
scientious movement of a people struggling for liberty; 
but for those who are acquainted with that psycholog^^, 
the confidence or want of confidence which the revolution 
inspired, was measured by the confidence or want of con- 
fidence which its leaders inspired. 

And the latter could not be less worthy of confidence. 
Carranza, the nominal chief, had the record of an ob- 
scure and servile politician of the dictatorship of Porfi- 
rio Diaz. He, who had arrived at old age without reveal- 
ing any aptitude as a statesman, notwithstanding the 
opportunities which he had had, appeared the least able 
to place himself at the front of a country so difficult to 
govern as Mexico. Attention, moreover, was given to the 



69 

fact that by the side of Carranza there was none of the 
men known to be capable of directing and administering 
public affairs, and that his counselors and co-workers were 
unknown people and youths who had not attained their 
thirties. 

On the contrary, the second man of the revolution, 
indeed, appeared strong, formidably strong, — but he was 
Francisco Villa. Everybody knew his record, in which 
there was no crime which could not be imputed to him. 

The consternation which was caused by seeing the 
President of the United States pledged to the triumph of 
these men produced, as a first result, the suspension of all 
investment of foreign capital in Mexican business. This 
signified a grave disturbance of the economic situation 
of Mexico, whose economic balance only can be maintained 
by means of the uninterrupted influx of outside capital. 

A concomitant phenomenon was the withdrawal of 
capital, which took all possible forms, including that of 
the emigration of metallic specie. 

Thus was initiated the ruin of Mexico. Not only was 
the development of the riches of the country suspended, 
but that which already had been accumulated began to 
dwindle. Confidence being lost in the men, — as unfortu- 
nately, none was felt for the institutions which were yet in 
an embryonic state, — in the presence of the attitude of the 
American President, pledged to destroy the existing gov- 
ernment in order to deliver the fate of the countn'', not to 
the people whose immense illiterate majority were not 
interested in the revolution, but to inept politicians like 
Carranza or to professional brigands, such as Villa, eveiy 
man who could disentangle his interests from that menac- 
ing situation did it without hesitation and with the great- 
est possible promptitude. 

Who is responsible for this first phase of the economic 
disaster of Mexico? History will show, in a ver>^ dis- 
tinguished place, the American Government; but it will 
not be possible to fix its responsibility in cash. The 



70 

contrary conclusion is reached in respect to other respon- 
sibilities which, by their concrete character, are suscepti- 
ble of liquidation and payment. With these we will 
occupy ourselves superficially. 

Much is said in the United States about the millions 
of dollars of American capital invested in Mexico; but 
it is not known that the English, German, French, Belgian, 
Dutch and other capital invested in mines, railroads, elec- 
tric power plants, cotton and textile factories, farms and 
industries in general, exceeds four hundred millions of 
dollars. If to this is added the considerable number of 
bonds and shares of Mexican companies which have been 
floated in the foreign markets, and the bonds of the Mexi- 
can national debt and of semi-official enterprises, like the 
National Railroads, — the greater part of whose bonds had 
been placed in Europe — we shall have to conclude that the 
European capital for which Mexico is responsible amounts, 
perhaps, to a thousand millions of dollars. 

T\n^^ien the moment arises to fix the responsibilities of 
Mexico they will reach important figures. Not only have 
properties been destroyed and goods confiscated or stolen 
by the men of the revolution, but temporary spoliation has 
occurred, such as the occupation of the railroads and 
tramway lines, and the paralyzation of industries with 
grave damage to the operating plants and to the proper- 
ties themselves. The payment of interest upon bonds has 
been almost entirely suspended. The national railroads 
of Mexico owe more than twenty millions of dollars and 
the government owes a much greater sum in defaulted 
interest on the public debt. 

If confidence in the countiy should be re-established, 
as by enchantment, Mexico would be able to pay what may 
be legitimately to its charge, because its economic life 
would soon reacquire its vigor; but the first obstacle i& 
the re-establishment of lost confidence. 

Because not only have doubts been engendered as to 
the capacity of the Mexicans to govern their country, but 



71 

a new element of distrust has been injected into the situ- 
ation, and that is the attitude of the government of the 
United States. 

The case of Mexico has revealed a weak point in the 
political organization of the American people. In this 
great republic of the North, with its admirable institu- 
tions, guaranteeing individual lilierty and protection 
against all despotism, the President, nevertheless, disposes 
of an arbitrary, unlimited power to manage international 
affairs. The other mechanisms of the government, such 
as the courts of justice and the Congress, which can so 
effectivel}^ limit the activities of the President in interior 
matters, are impotent to influence him when it concerns 
international affairs. And when a President abandons 
the wise traditions inherited from the "Fathers" and 
wishes to launch himself upon the road of innovations in 
his relations with other countries, the American people are 
devoid of restrictive means to intercept those activities, 
however perilous and arbitrary they may be. 

Mr. Wilson is one of those innovators. Believing that 
his mission abroad is not that of protecting the lives and 
interests of his countrymen, but that of "serving human- 
ity," he found in Mexico a propitious field to a])]ily his 
theories and caused the ruin of the Mexicans in his eager- 
ness to effect their happiness. 

It occurred to Mr. Wilson that the Villa-Carranza revo- 
lution was the work of the "submerged eighty-five per 
cent., who are struggling toward liberty." He was within 
his rights in believing this, since every man is indeed the 
master of his own errors; he was in his right in declaring 
"my passion is for the submerged eighty-five per cent,"; 
but the President entered upon the road of attacks u]ion 
International law when he declared: "It is my part to aid 
in composing those differences (between Mexicans) so far 
as I may be able, that the nniv order, which will have its 
foundation on human liberty and human rights, shall pre- 
vail." "It is not my intention, having begun this enter- 



72 

■prise, to turn back." (Interview of the 23rd of May, 
1914, in the Saturday Evening Post). 

"When I see the crust even so much as slightly broken 
over the heads of a population which has always been 
directed by a board of trustees, I make up my mind that 
I will thrust not only my arm but my heart, in the aper- 
ture, and that only by crushing every ounce of power that 
I can use shall any man ever close that opening up again." 

This the President said, referring to Mexico, at the 
banquet which was celebrated in Washington on Jefferson 
Day on April 13th of the present year. We do not know, 
of course, which is that "board of trustees" against whom 
Mr. Wilson thunders ; but, in every case, any government 
whatever in Mexico will always run the risk of being 
declared a "board of trustees" by the American President, 
and of having the latter use even the ''last ounce'' of the 
formidable power of the United States to destroy it. 

With these doleful precedents we must repeat, with 
reason, that the Government of the United States is a new 
factor of distrust, and, finally, an obstacle to the re-estab- 
lishment of the economic life of Mexico. 

Let us suppose a government established in that coun- 
try against which any ambitious chief in Chihuahua, or 
in some other State contiguous with the United States, 
rises in arms. If the American President should declare 
that that ambitious chief is a Christ of the down-trodden 
people, of the "eighty-five per cent." which is the object 
of the presidential "passion," the revolt will prosper with- 
out any doubt. It will avail nothing that a law exists 
regarding embargo of arms ; it will serve for nothing what 
the treaties and international law may provide: for the 
President there are no limitations ; and just as Mr. Wilson 
could with impunity sacrifice more than two hundred lives 
to take Vera Cruz and to hurl Huerta from power, any 
other president will be able to make use of similar pro- 
ceedings in an analogous case, without the American 
people having means to prevent such illegitimate acts. 



73 

But let us return to the subject of the pecuniary re- 
sponsibilities. It is evident that the great nations of 
Europe are going to make somebody pay what Mexico 
owes them, and that upon the termination of the great war 
those impoverished countries will begin to collect all their 
credits. Those which are charged to Mexico represent 
sums of consideration. 

They will immediately meet with the difficulty of the 
insolvency of their debtor; but this will not be a serious 
obstacle. America is rich and it will have to pay the 
account. Why? 

Mexico has incurred these responsibilities, due solely 
to its condition of anarchy; and if it is proved that the 
United States is responsible for that condition it will be- 
long to the United States to pay. 

For the great powers of Europe the situation vriW be 
very clear. They all recognized Huerta, taking the posi- 
tion that his government gave them every kind of guar- 
anties. If the United States had, at the same time, ac- 
cepted Huerta and the latter had failed, Europe would 
have nothing to say. 

But the conclusion is different when the failure of 
Huerta is imputable to the United States. From the 
moment in which President Wilson announced that he 
would overthrow Huerta, (see Chapter III) the basis of 
the pecuniary responsibilities of the American people was 
definitely established. 

If the attitude of Mr. Wilson had been legitimate, we 
would have to say another thing; but according to uni- 
versal doctrine, invoked in the first paragraph of this 
chapter, the United States violated a fundamental prin- 
ciple of international law, first in overthrowing Huerta, 
and second, in aiding Villa and Carranza. If, indeed, 
these acts of the American Government have been trans- 
lated into enormous pecuniary losses, the United States 
will have to indemnify the European countries injured 
thereby. 



74 

This is true, speaking in general terms, but we could 
enter into concrete cases. We will limit ourselves with a 
few. 

The occupation of Vera Cruz would have had certain 
aspects of legitimacy if it had been due to the incident 
of the salute to the flag, as the President made the people 
and Congress believe ; but it is proved that that occupation 
had two illegitimate objects neither of which was the busi- 
ness of the President of the United States: "To serve 
humanity and the Mexicans," and to overthrow Huerta. 

The occupation of Vera Cruz caused enormous losses 
to the great railroad enterprise known as the "Mexican 
Railroad," which belongs to an English company. That 
railroad connects Vera Cruz, the first port of Mexico, with 
the capital, touching the important cities of Cordoba, Ori- 
zaba and Puebla. The greater part of the commerce and 
importations of Mexico, and much of the exportation, was 
made at that time over that line. The traffic was suddenly 
interrupted by the landing of the American forces. 

Is Mexico going to pay for the pecuniary responsibili- 
ties which the British Government will exact, in due time, 
for the enormous losses which that railroad suffered! And 
why has Mexico to respond for the claims of other gov- 
ernments, such, for example, as the French, for the losses 
and damages which the great French textile and cotton 
factories of Orizaba suffered and which were also damaged 
by the occupation of Vera Cruz? 

Many other cases could be cited. For example, Presi- 
dent Wilson urged Americans to leave Mexico without 
delay, causing them to believe that war was going to be 
declared against the Government of Huerta. Those men 
who had no motive of complaint against the Mexican Gov- 
ernment abandoned all their properties and interests and 
many of them were ruined. Is Mexico going to pay the 
claims which will be presented by these direct victims of 
the caprices of Mr. Wilson? 

We sincerely believe that all the pecuniary indemnities 



75 

which will be exacted from Mexico, as a consequence of 
its state of anarchy, from the date that the so-called con- 
stitutionalist revolution was started up to the present 
time, will have to be borae by the United States, for the 
illegitimate and baneful participation which its govern- 
ment took in Mexican affairs. Because it must be remem- 
bered that the United States — or its President — not only 
destroyed a government, but it imposed upon the country 
an inept and rapacious faction. Later when this faction 
was split and a new contest developed, more destructive 
and cruel than the previous one, the United States pro- 
moted that contest, by delivering Vera Cruz to Carranza 
and thus preventing the elimination of that chieftain. 
Then, when anarchy had arrived to frightful extremes the 
President limited himself with directing admonitions of 
lofty rhetoric to the contending parties, but made no use 
of the remedy which he was legally able to apply: the 
embargo upon arms and munitions. 

All this is to be paid for, because it resulted in damages 
estimable in money. 

Much has been said that Mexico will be obliged to 
make compensation for the lives of the Americans who 
have been victims of bandits and revolutionists; but it 
is forgotten that the United States has equivalent resi)on- 
sibilities to Mexico. So far as it concerns lives, it is clear 
that the United States will have to pay for the Mexicans 
sacrificed in Vera Cruz from the moment in which the 
occupation of this port may be declared an unwarranted 
attack, as it is. 

As for other responsibilities, there will always be a 
Mexican counter-claim to oppose to any American claim 
whatever, considering that we Afexicans have suffored 
more than any one else from the supervising and meddle- 
some action of the United States. 

But let us put to one side the responsil)ilities estimable 
in money. When, before the tril)unal of Universal Con- 
science, when, before the Supreme Court of Civilization, 



76 

the cause of Mexico is presented, the moral responsibilities 
of the United States will be defined and the present ad- 
ministration will be stigmatized for having caused the loss 
of many honest and legitimate interests, for not having 
enforced respect for the rights of its own citizens, for 
having shed blood and having caused tears to flow with- 
out proper cause, for having, in fine, precipitated to its 
ruin a nation which, although weak and infirm, has given 
l^roofs in the past of not needing foreign tutors who em- 
ploy in the service of their own ignorance and pride the 
invincible power of a great nation. 



77 



CHAPTER XI. 

FALSE POSTULATES 

"The Struggle for Liberty.'' "The Fight for the I^nd."— The Con- 
cessionaires. 

"My passion is for the submerged eighty-five per cent, 
of the -people of that republic, who are now struggling 
toward liberty," said Mr. Wilson in May, 1914, referring 
to the revolution whose most conspicuous figure was then 
Francisco Villa. (Interview in the Saturday Evening 
Post). 

Who compose that eighty-five per cent.? Mr. Wilson 
himself undertakes to say: "The present revolution, like 
all preceding revolutions, is primarily a revolution by the 
peo'iis, who want to regain their land"; and he adds that 
the revolution was "a fight for the land, just that and 
nothing more." 

Let us pass over the statement that all revolutions in 
Mexico have been for the land, — a statement that makes 
any student of Mexican history smile — and let us limit 
ourselves to analyzing very briefly the character of the 
Villa-Carranza revolution. 

Let it be observed, in the first place, that all the revo- 
lutionary armies together, besides all the bands of brig- 
ands who called themselves revolutionists, never reached 
150,000 men ; that is to say, one per cent, of the total popu- 
lation. It is surprising that when the eighty-five per cent, 
of the population; that is, let us s,ay, ten millions, were 
"struggling toward liberty," this enormous human mass 
only produced such an insignificant number of effective 
fighters. On the other hand during the revolution there 
never occurred any of those gigantic popular convulsions 
which characterize the uprisings of every peo]»]o which 
shakes off the yoke of its oppressors. If the revolution 
had been the work of the ten millions, we would have wit- 
nessed similar pictures to those which history presents in 



7« 

cases of a true popular struggle for liberty. We would 
have seen the people unite themselves to the liberating 
armies, and, thereupon, in the shelter of their conquered 
liberty, create the instruments which insure life, property, 
and the free exercise of civic rights. We would have seen 
the town councils, the local governments, the representa- 
tive assemblies, reconstructed. We would have heard the 
voice of the tribunes of the people calling to the citizens, 
like Danton to the people of Paris, to organize the revolu- 
tionary government. We would have seen something, in 
fine, which would indicate the participation of the masses, 
although it m.ight be at the hour of the triumph against 
the oppressors. However, we saw nothing of this kind. 

The Revolutionists entered a place, and the inhabit- 
ants, terrorized, shut themselves up in their houses, con- 
cealed their wives and their daughters to save them from 
the lust of those ferocious beasts, and concealed their 
properties to save them from pillage. In the great cities 
there were customarily acclamations and friendly recep- 
tions for the victors, inspired more by fear of being con- 
sidered unfriendly than by a legitimate enthusiasm; but 
nowhere was seen the popular etfort to draw from that 
triumph any advantage for the effectiveness of the public 
liberties. Martial law was the form in which the revolu- 
tionary authority was exercised. The military tribunal, 
without law, and arbitrary, substituted the civil tribunal ; 
the military commander took the place of the municipal 
council; the military governor that of the civil governor 
of the state and the "First Chief" substituted the Presi- 
dent of the Republic, the Congress and the federal courts 
of justice. 

The fact is that the Constitutionalist revolution was, 
like the majority of Latin- American revolutions, the move- 
ment of some audacious m.en, seconded by some men sin- 
cere and of good faith and by many merciless brigands, in 
the face of the absolute passivity and the stupefaction of 
the great mass of the population which, by invincible 



79 

idiosyncrasy, is incapable of organizing itself for defence 
or of feeling enthusiasm for the struggle. 

Those who are ignorant of the character of the peoples 
in which the Indian element and the mixed Spanish-Indian 
element dominate, do not understand this. Those who are 
only acquainted with the history of the Anglo-Saxon races 
are incapable of comprehending this Sphinx-like attitude 
of an entit'e people in the face of the greatest disasters; 
but so it is, and this constitutes one of the greatest disad- 
vantages for democratic progress in the countries in which 
the Indian element dominates. The Latin-American coun- 
tries in which the white race predominates have entered 
into other paths. 

The first thing which the revolution did at dominating 
in any zone was to establish, as we have said, a regime 
of military despotism; and alas how idle it is to speak of 
public liberties ! 

It will be said that this was necessary' as a measure 
of transition; but this transitory state has been main- 
tained for two years, during which there have been pro- 
hibited, under penalty of death, political meetings, the 
publication of independent newspapers and every mani- 
festation toward the liberty for which, according to Mr. 
Wilson, the people had been struggling. 

Every legislative assembly, local, state and national, 
has been absolutely suppressed and the courts of justice 
abolished, and in their place has been set up an autocrat 
whose power has no limitations ; who not only dictates all 
laws, but constitutes himself their sole judge and execu- 
tive. (See decree issued by Carranza in Vera Cniz on 
the 12th of December, 1914, which we publish as an ap- 
pendix). 

Mr. Wilson has heard it said that in Mexico there is 
an agrarian problem and has asserted, as we have seen, 
that the "Constitutionalist" revolution was a "Fight for 
the land, just that and nothing more" ; but surely he does 



80 

not know that the men who made this supposed agragian 
revolution did not demand nor have they ever demanded 
that land be given them. 

The rural population of Mexico, four or five millions 
of Indian field laborers, did not make the revolution. As 
the negro slaves of the South maintained themselves pas- 
sive and faithful while their masters were fighting against 
the liberating armies of the Union, "the peons" as Mr. 
Wilson says, have remained indifferent in the presence of 
a struggle which could have given them the opportunity 
of redeeming themselves. The most that they have done, 
and that in a very small number, has been to unite them- 
selves to the armies of anarchy to satisfy their lust and 
their thirst for blood and rapine, always latent in the heart 
of the uncultivated Indian ; but it is useless to try to dis- 
cover in the co-called "Constitutionalist" movement a 
defined effort for the conquest of the land. That which has 
been, indeed, a "Fight for the land" is the "Zapatista" 
movement; and, with inexplicable inconsistency Mr. Wil- 
son has never shown any interest in that movement. The 
Indians of the State of Morelos, with Zapata as their 
leader, have made an agrarian revolution, but Carranza, 
the agrarianist of Mr. Wilson, is trying to suppress Zapa- 
tism with blood and fire ! Carranza employs against the 
agrarianists of Morelos the same cruel procedure which 
Huerta employed; and up to now we do not know that 
Mr. Wilson, who sjTnpathizes so much with the imaginary 
Villa-Carranza agrarian movement, has made a single 
manifestation of support for those who, in truth, are fight- 
ing for the land. 

The economic and intellectual situation of the Indian 
in Mexico, as in the greater part of the Spanish- American 
countries from Guatemala to Paraguay, constitutes a grave 
problem which will be solved when a majority of the 
Indian field laborers are converted into farmers with a 
direct interest in the land. With this two important re- 
sults would be obtained in Mexico, to wit : 



81 

In the first place, it would make of these men, now 
passive elements and victims of the landlords as well as 
of the revolutionist "liberators," factors for the conserva- 
tion of social order and for the arrest of anarchy, which 
will happen from the moment in w^hich the Indians, by 
their ow^n direct interest in the land are able to form a 
patrimony; and, in the second place, it would encourage 
the progress of agriculture, to-day not only backward in 
its methods, but insufficient in its development to feed the 
national population, in spite of the great extension of the 
territory. 

The agrarian problem considered from its most serious 
point of view, which is that of the regime of rural ])rop- 
erty, presents difficulties of an economic and juridical 
kind which would put to the test the knowledge of the 
most expert statesmen. The property regime in ^Mexico 
is the product of economic and historical causes which 
have come down through centuries, since the remote epoch 
of the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. Therefore, 
it is senseless to say that by proceedings of confiscatory 
despoliation, or military decrees, as Mr. Carranza has 
pretended to do, that regime can be corrected. 

As experience has amply demonstrated, it will serve 
for nothing to divide up the land among the Indians, for 
the latter, for want of resources and because of their 
ignorance, are not capable of keeping it. Nor is it possible 
to establish a country of small ])roprietors wherein there 
are no institutions of rural credit or ways of communica- 
tion or the other elements and facilities wliicli exist in 
countries where agrarian i3ro])erty is subdivided among 
numerous cultivators. 

To accomplish the realization of all this, which is the 
labor of years, a constitutional government is required, 
which will subject its proceedings to the laws, and wliich 
will enjoy a firm credit; that is to say, a government pre- 
cisely different from that of which Carranza is the head. 
i Among the false postulates of ]\rr. Wilson, tlie one 



82 

which merits especial mention is that which refers to the 
"Concessionaires." To justify his strange omission to 
care for his countrymen in Mexico, Mr. Wilson always 
alludes to them in a form which smells of Wall Street or 
of Standard Oil ; with the result that Americans interested 
in Mexico are made to appear, in the opinion of many of 
their fellow-citizens, as blood-suckers that merit not only 
the abandonment of their government but universal exe- 
cration. These are the "Americans pressing for things 
they could never have got in their own country," Mr. 
Wilson said in the speech in which he accepted his 
candidacy. 

We shall pass over the circumstances that the majority 
of the Americans in Mexico are employees, engineers, 
small farmers, small merchants and professional men, 
almost all of whom have, on account of the revolution, 
lost the little and only property they had in the world; 
and we shall refer ourselves only to the "sharks." Who 
are the latter? 

This matter of concessionaires in Mexico is a bugaboo 
to frighten not only the foolish, but men as expert as 
President Wilson and Secretary Lane. The latter, in the 
defence of the Mexican policy of President Wilson, 
alluded to several times in this book, arrives to the ex- 
treme of asserting that it has been the custom of the 
Mexican government "to sell concessions in order to sup- 
port itself". Probably Mr, Lane confuses Mexico with 
some other country, as he did confuse Porfirio Diaz with 
the Venezuelan dictator, Guzman Blanco; but the dis- 
tinguished Secretary should know that since the year 
1893 up to the fall of President Madero — twenty years — 
the Mexican government never sold a concession, and 
that, to sustain its necessities it never resorted to those 
expedients, because among other things in that year it 
adopted an admirable system of budgets based on the 
previous limitation of the expenses in view of the probable 
and previously calculated income from revenues. This 



88 

progress has not been attained even by the government 
of the United States, whicli still arranges its expenses by 
the unfortunate method of the "pork barrel." 

Of course, what has been said does not apply to the 
government "de facto", the creature of Mr. Wilson, which 
indeed has sold concessions to American "sharks", an in- 
stance of which is that of the sisal monopoly. 

In the early days of the government of General Diaz, 
some twenty-five or thirty j'ears ago, certain odious con- 
cessions Avere granted; but what has generally been called 
"concessions", given in the last twenty-five years, arc such 
only in name. 

To develop hor great resources, Mexico, a country 
without capital, needed to resort to foreign capital, and 
the government of General Diaz had to employ certain 
stimuli to induce capitalists to invest their money in a 
country w^hich, on account of its turbulent past, inspired 
little confidence. Therefore, the following system was 
adopted: any one who would oblige himself to invest a 
certain amount of capital in an enterprise was exem])ted 
for a certain number of years from certain kinds of taxes, 
and was peiTnitted for a limited time to import free of 
customs duties the machinery and tools which he needed 
for his industry. This contractor — the concessionaire as 
he was called — signed a contract that imposed upon him 
the obligation of expending in his enterprise a stated 
amount, and guaranteed his obligation by a deposit of 
government bonds. In exchange for this, in consideration 
of the advantages which his industry afforded to the 
country, the government conceded the exemptions above 
pointed out. On the other hand, if the concessionaire de- 
faulted in complying with the obligations which the con- 
tract imposed upon him, he lost the deposit of guaranty, 
and the exemptions that were granted him thereby ceased. 
Sometimes these concessions only wore given to the 
founder of an industry new to the country; but the general 
rule was that they were granted to everybody that 



84 

solicited them and offered the securities required by the 
law. They were not then monopolies, nor were they 
granted for every industry in general, but for some things 
especially important for the development of the natural 
resources of the country. 

Under the protection of these "concessions" there were 
established, in Mexico, industries which, like the smelting 
of ores, increased the mineral production of the country 
more than one thousand per cent. At the present time no 
smelting company enjoys exemptions, and they are all in 
the same legal condition as those of the same kind in the 
United States. 

Some of the companies producing petroleum obtained 
also "concessions" such as those that have been described. 
The veins or deposits of oil belong in Mexico to the owner 
of the soil, and the "concessionaires" only obtained — in 
return for the obligation of investing large amounts of 
capital in the development of this industry — a limited ex- 
emption from customs duties in the form above explained, 
the term of which has expired in the great majority of 
cases. Exemption which also was given them to export 
their products, without paying export taxes, was simply 
nominal, since the government, under various pretexts, 
has evaded it. 

Contrary to what is generally believed, the great 
quantity of petroleum which is extracted in Mexico does 
not proceed from national land, but from lands which 
companies and private individuals have purchased from 
their owners. Lord Cowdray, himself, — who is not an 
American but an Englishman, and who indeed has a con- 
cession to exploit petroleum in lands of the public domain 
— operates almost solely upon private lands under leases 
with their owners. 

The railroad companies have received frequent sub- 
sidies in the form of a payment in bonds or in cash for 
each section of railroad constructed. These Mexican con- 
cessions are mere child's play by the side of those that 



85 

the government of the United States gave to the great 
lines which opened up the West and whicli received 
gigantic gifts in money and in public lands. 

On the other hand, the Mexican railroads, which never 
have received any lands, have the obligation to transport 
the mails free of charge; and under the law — with the 
exception of one line which belongs to an English com- 
pany — must become the property of the nation at the 
end of ninety-nine years, without any cost whatever to 
the latter. 

We could continue our analysis to destroy this fantasm 
of the concessions, which only exists in the imagination of 
one who does not know what Mexico is. 

We shall not deny that during the regime of General 
Diaz enormous business was created under the protection 
of the government, the same as happens in the United 
States and in the whole world. In Mexico also there are 
"deserving Democrats" who thrive on official aid; these 
we call "cientificos," but in general the situation in this 
matter is totally different from what Mr. Wilson asserts 
with as much emphasis as lack of foundation. 

Those "concessionaires" whom Mr. Wilson nails to 
the cross of his hatred before the jeers of his fellow-citi- 
zens, are, nevertheless, factors of the first im])ortance for 
the progress of Mexico and are the heralds of friendship 
and good understanding between both peoi)les. From 
those "concessionaires", who today are not working on 
account of the reigning anarchy, the authorities de facto 
almost daily demand, with prayers and with threats, that 
they shall renew their paralyzed industries in order to 
arrest the horrible state of misery and in order to give 
bread to millions of hungry Mexicans. 

We shall terminate this chapter with a citation which 
has a happy ap])lication to our case. 

Treating of the policy of Thaddeus Stevens and other 
leaders of the American Congress in the period of recon- 
struction, the historian Woodrow Wilson says that they 



86 

"did not know the region with which they were dealing" ; 
and adds that "Northern men who did know it tried to 
inform them of its character and of the danger and folly 
of what they were undertaking; but they refused to be 
informed, did not care to know, WERE IN ANY CASE 
FIXED UPON THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF A 
SINGLE OBJECT." With this conduct those leaders 
"had prepared the way for the ruin of the South, but they 
had hardly planned to ruin it". (Woodrow Wilson's His- 
tory of the American People, Vol. 5. page 50). 

Why does Mr. Wilson see things in one manner as 
an historian and in another manner as President? That 
with which he reproaches the leaders of Congress, we 
Mexicans have the right to reproach him with ; to manage 
a situation without knowledge of it, to refuse all informa- 
tion regarding it, and to fix himself upon the fulfillment 
of a single purpose, — to ruin Mexico, as the politicians of 
reconstruction ruined the South, without, nevertheless, 
having the purpose of ruining it. 



87 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE POWER OF WORDS. 
"He has kept us out of Mexico." 

President Wilson, who, after all, is a man and a poli- 
tician. Las tried to obscure the true issues of the Mexican 
question by making the public believe that he has saved 
the United States from a war with Mexico. 

In one of his last speeches, in order to signify how his 
sui)])osed attitude accords with the general feeling, Mr. 
Wilson referred to the engineer of a train on which he 
was traveling, who had said to him in a tone of entreaty: 
"Mr. President, keep us out of Mexico." 

Acquainted with human frivolity, it was of little im- 
portance to Mr. Wilson that his acts are in constant con- 
tradiction with his words and that tlie latter frequently 
contradict each other. That which sounds best to the ear is 
the only tiling that prevails, and the fallacy, that it is due 
to Mr. Wilson that there is no war, works marvels even 
among serious persons.* 

We have alluded to the contradictions of Mr. Wilson. 
These aie so many and so frequent that it would be a 
task to exhibit them all. AVe will limit ourselves, then, 
to some few. 

Notwithstanding the intermina1)le series of acts of 
political and armed intervention which he has executed in 
Mexico, and that the reader has seen enumerated in the 
preceding chapters, the President said in his S])eech at 
Indianapolis: "... so far as my influence goes, while 
I am President nobody shall interfere with tliem" (the 



♦Note: A man as eminent iis Mr. Kdisdii (See New York Times. 
September 4, lOl(j) has just declarer] for the re-election of Wil.sou 
among other reasons because the President has acted, in relation to 
Mexico, "wii^el.v. justly and courageously." It Is clearly .seen that 
Mr. Edison, who has little time to study these thinj^.s, lias fallen a 
victim to the enchantment of words. 



88 

Mexicans) ; and in his speech at Cohimbus he expressed 
himself thus : "The Mexicans may not know what to do 
with their government, but that is none of our business; 
and so long as I have the power to jorevent it nobody shall 
butt in to alter it for them." 

On the other hand, in his speech on Jefferson Day, he 
asserted that it would be necessary to destroy even the 
last ounce of power of which he disposed, before any 
government should be established in Mexico that would 
not be approved by Mr. Wilson. 

"I do not know how many men came to me", said the 
President at Columbus, Ohio, "and suggested that the 
government of Mexico should be altered as we thought it 
ought to be altered, but being a subscriber to the doctrine 
of the Virginia Bill of Eights I could not agree with 
them". And nevertheless John Lind went to Mexico to 
demand that the government shoidd he altered as Presi- 
dent Wilson thought that it ought to be altered. 

In his speech at Columbus, the President stated that 
the people had the right to alter or abolish by any means 
whatever — even that of insurrection, as has been done 
in Mexico — governments which are "unsuitable to the life 
of the people"; and a few weeks afterwards, namely, on 
the 6th of January, 1916, the President made a speech in 
Washington in which he proposed to the Pan-American 
Scientific Congress the celebration of treaties between the 
countries of this continent, which should have, among 
other objects, "to prohibit the exportation of the munitions 
of war for the purpose of supplying revolutionists against 
neighboring governments" ; that is to say, he proposed a 
measure to make the exercise of the right of insurrection 
impossible and which would have prevented Mr. Wilson 
from raising the embargo on munitions for the benefit of 
Villa and Carranza. 

Lastly, in order not to make this tedious enumeration 
interminable, we shall finish by citing a passage from the 



89 

speech which Mr. AVilson delivered in New York on the 
27th of Januaiy, 1916: 

"America has always stood resolutely and absolutely 
for the right of eveiy people to determine its own destiny 
and its own affairs. I am absolutely a disciple of that 
doctrine and I am ready to do that thing and observe that 
principle in dealing with the troubled affairs of our dis- 
tressed neighbor to the south". (Speech in Aeolian Hall). 

Here again the contradiction between words and deeds 
is patent. To say that ho has ai)plied to Mexico the 
principles that the latter has the right to determine its 
affairs by itself alone, is a mere sarcasm to any one who 
knows that, from the mission of John Lind up to the 
recognition of Carranza, the President has done nothing 
else than to determine the affairs of Mexico. 

But, we repeat it, the public little perceives these in- 
credible incongruities, and men as respectable as Mr. 
Edison are blinded to the degree of believing that Isiv. 
Wilson has not intei'\^ened in Mexico. (Note to this 
chapter). And the President, a profound psychologist, 
referred with delight to what the plain people said 
through the mouth of the railroad engineer, adding that 
so long as he should be President he would keep the 
United States "out of Mexico" ! 

What is meant by the statement that the President has 
kept the United States "out of Mexico"'? 

It cannot mean that the President has not intervened 
in the affairs of Mexico, — ^which he has done in the most 
high-handed and perilous manner; nor does it mean that 
the United States has not carried on war in Mexico, since 
the affair of Vera Cruz, that of Parral and tliat of Oarrizal 
have cost many more American soldiers' lives than the 
celebrated naval battles of Manila and Santiago de Cuba. 

It may be said that those have not been real wars, 
because the operations have not been continued ; but does 
the merit of this belong to the President of the United 
States? Surely not. The occurrence of Vera Cruz was 



90 

a casus belli provoked by Mr. Wilson ; but the latter had 
the good fortune that Huerta did not pick up the glove. 
With only a declaration of war from the Mexican dictator, 
with only an attack upon General Funston in Vera Cruz, 
or if any city of the Texas frontier had been destroyed 
by Huerta's forces, a general war would have been in- 
evitable. 

Nothing of this kind happened, because Mr. Wilson 
found in Huerta an enemy "too proud to fight" ; but this 
fortuitous circumstance, foreign to the will of the Presi- 
dent, should not be credited to him as a title to the grati- 
tude of the people. 

When the partisans of Mr. Wilson said: "We have 
no war with Mexico — thank God for Wilson," they should 
have said, in justice: "Thank God for Huerta". 

And what of Parral and Carrizal? Already we have 
proved that the punitive expedition is an illegal invasion 
of the territory of Mexico which Carranza did not oppose 
through cowardice and weakness. Carranza nevertheless 
had to later yield to the pressure of public opinion and 
proposed not to permit the advance of General Pershing; 
but if instead of limiting himself to this, Carranza had 
attacked the American column, war would have been in- 
evitable. 

In this case, as in that of Vera Cruz, the armed and 
illegal invasion of Mexican territory, the provocative act 
of war, was the work of President Wilson. To thank him 
for not having had war, when the American people owes 
this service to Huerta and to Carranza, is to see things 
contrariwise. The wealmess and the cowardice of two 
Mexican dictators have saved the situation. Huerta and 
Carranza are creditors for the adoration of Mr. Bryan and 
other American pacifists. 

A war of invasion, armed intervention, would have 
been, on the other hand, a great crime, in spite of the 
attacks of which the citizens of the United States in 
Mexico have been the victims, in spite of the incursions 



91 

into Texas and New Mexico. All these acts are the conse- 
quence of a state of anarchy fomented by the government 
of the United States and sustained with American arms 
and munitions whose exi)ortation President Wilson was 
able to prevent. The terrible consequences of the absurd 
policy of ]\rr. Wilson ought not to be corrected with the 
commission of a crime, which the subjugation of an entire 
people by arms would be, a people which has suffered 
more than any one else from the work of its officioug 
protector. 

The sane, legal and just policy would liave been to 
do nothing that Mr. Wilson has done. The critics of the 
letter are reproached, that they limit themselves to criti- 
cising; and that they do not suggest what it would have 
been necessary to do ; but this observation has no weight. 
What ought to have been done, what indeed still must be 
done, is precisely what Mr. Wilson does not do, which is 
to abstain from meddling in things which are beyond his 
legal competency as President and beyond his knowledge 
as a man. 

It was within his right not to recognize Huerta, but 
it was not his mission to overthrow Huerta and to aid 
Villa and Carranza. From intrusion to instrusion Mr. 
Wilson has arrived to the extremes at which he finds him- 
self today, without knowing how to extricate himself from 
the entanglement. The Mexican territory invaded by a 
punitive column which does not punish, and cannot ad- 
vance without provoking conflict, a humiliating situation 
for Mexicans and a shameful one for the United States; 
Mexico devoured by anarchy, with its economic life 
paralyzed, with its people dying of hunger and ]iesti- 
lence; the interests of foreigners which ]\rexico so nnich 
needs in order to live, suffering damage by the sto])]nng 
of the fountains of riches, by the want of laws and con- 
stitutional guaranties and by the suspension of the ad- 
ministration of justice. All this melancholy picture is 



92 

the result of many factors, but chiefly of the Wilsonian 
policy. 

To abandon this policy is the important thing, that 
Mexico may raise herself alone if she can. She has been 
able to do so on other occasions, when she has had the 
good fortune that no one desired to play the "big 
brother" to her. The United States should limit herself 
to demanding guaranties for its citizens: this it has the 
right to do, and in it we Mexicans could not find any 
cause of offense, but we do not wish to be managed, under 
pretext of offering us aid, by one who does not under- 
stand us or our character or our history or our complica- 
tion of races of our language. 

Unfortunately for Mexicans, a new factor has entered 
into the situation of Mexico, in these last days; the 
electoral fortunes of Mr. Wilson. 

To exploit the ultra-pacifist sentiment of many, a 
great comedy is played with its martial scenario very well 
staged, in which are made to figure as supernumeraries 
all the forces of the army and militia of the United States. 

One hundred and fifty thousand soldiers to protect 
this powerful country from some hundreds of brigands ! 

Terrified before such a combination of warlike 
measures, before such a menacing picture, which raises 
the fear of imminent conflict, the credulous public love to 
applaud the prudence of Mr. Wilson for causing this 
thunder-cloud to dissolve in the placidity of the confer- 
ences of New London. 

Once more is this people "kept out of war" by the 
magic of Mr. Wilson, by his supreme diplomacy! 

Carranza, on his side, plays with affability the part 
assigned to him, convinced that it is to his interest to aid 
the electoral triumph of Mr. Wilson. The "First Chief" 
has been able to prove all the force that his stubborn and 
obstinate character has over the vacillating spirit of 
President Wilson. It will be remembered in effect — to 
cite some of the many examples — that when Wilson asked 



93 

Carranza to attend the conference of Niagara Falls, the 
latter firmly refused, with which Mr. Wilson conformed; 
that when Wilson opposed the demand of Carranza for the 
unconditional surrender of Carvajal, Wilson yielded 
finally to the demand of Carranza; that when the latter 
was invited by Wilson to celebrate ]ieace with the Villa 
faction, Carranza answered that it was not the "business" 
of Wilson to meddle in the contests of Mexicans, to which 
Mr. Wilson had nothing to reply; that when the American 
government, associated with six complacent Latin-Ameri- 
can governments, invited the factions to a conference of 
peace, Carranza was the only one who rejected the invita- 
tion in haughty form, demanding, in exchange, that he be 
recognized, which was quickly done; that although Presi- 
dent Wilson had announced himself as "the champion of 
constitutional government on this continent" and had de- 
clared that he would not have as a government in Mexico 
one which should not be regulated by the constitution 
of the countiy, he nevertheless recognized the dictator 
Carranza; that when the punitive expedition took place, 
Carranza prohibited the American forces from using the 
Mexican railroads and from entering the towns and vil- 
lages, to all of which Mr. Wilson acceded with meekness; 
that when Carranza forbade the column of General 
Pershing from advancing further south, Mr. Wilson im- 
mediately obeyed ; that in spite of the fact that :\rr. AVilson 
had menaced with "the gravest consequences" any act 
of violence against the forces of the punitive expedition, 
Carranza destroyed an American column in Carriznl, and 
"the gravest consequences" of this act were the invitation 
to the conferences of New London, with excursions on 
the Presidential yacht "^fayflower", and other unheard of 
courtesies to the representatives of Carranza. 

All this the "First Chief" knows, and, as is natural, 
he now places at the service of the electoral fortunes of 
Mr. Wilson the part of the scenic a])paratus which has 
been allotted to him. 



94 

For that, the chairman of the Carranza delegation in 
New London declared that the enemies of the Democratic 
party were the enemies of the "First Chief" ! 

We understand that in this country of democratic insti- 
tutions, the President is not a Czar, nor a Kaiser, nor a 
"war lord", upon whose caprice depends war or peace. 
The contrary would be a humiliation for the free citizens 
of this great republic. They ought not, then, to thank 
President Wilson that there is no war, when there is no 
motive for war. 

There is no motive for war with Mexico. The causes 
of friction, which are produced with such lamentable fre- 
quency, are imputable, as we have proved, to the ill advised 
policy of the President of the United States. The engineer 
of the presidential train who said : "Mr. President, keep 
us out of Mexico", should have said: "Mr. President, 
keep out of Mexico". 

THE END. 



95 



APPENDIX. 

We have referred in this book, to the remarkable decree of 
Carranza in whicli he declares himself invested with all the powers 
of the people, not only those vested on the Executive, legislative 
and Judicial Federal Powers but on the state powers as well. In 
the face of this decree, which creates the most astounding form 
of dictatorship that Mexico has known. President Wilson recog- 
nized Carranza. 

The decree referred to reads as follows: 



I, Venustiano Carranza, have seen fit to decree the following: 

Article 1. The plan of Guadalupe of March 26, 1913, shall 
subsist until the complete triumph of the revolution, and, there- 
fore. Citizen Yenustiano Carranza shall continue in his post as 
first chief of the constitutionalist revolution and as, depository of 
the executive power of the nation, until the enemy is overpowered 
and peace is restored. 

Article 2. The first chief of the revolution and depository of 
the executive power of the Republic, shall enact and enforce, dur- 
ing the struggle, all the laws. prov{sion.<(, and measures tending to 
meet the economic, social, and political needs of the country, 
carrying into effect the reforms which public opinion demands as 
indispensable for the establishment of a regime which will guar- 
antee the equality of Mexicans among themselves, agrarian laws 
favoring the creation of small landowners, the suppression of lati- 
fundia or large landliolders, and the restoration to townships of 
the lands illegally taken from them; fiscal laws tending to estab- 
lish an equitable system of taxation on real estate ; laws tending 
to improve the condition of the rural laborer, the workingman, 
the miner, and, in general, of the working classes: the establish- 
ment of municipal freedom as a constitutional institution ; bases 
for a new system of organization of the army; amendments of the 
election laws in order to insure the ofTcctiveness of suffrage ; organi- 
zation of an independent judicial power, in the federation as well 
as in the States ; revision of the laws relative to marriage and the 
civil status of persons ; provisions guaranteeing the strict observ- 
ance of the laws of reform; revision of the civil, penal, and com- 



96 

mercial codes; amendment of judicial procedure, for the purpose 
of expediting and causing the effectiveness of the administration 
of justice; revision of laws relative to the exploitation of mines, 
petroleum, water rights, forests, and other natural resources of the 
country, in order to destroy the monopolies created by the old 
regime and to prevent the formation of new ones ; political reforms 
which will insure the absolute observance of the constitution of 
Mexico, and, in general, all the other laws which may he deemed 
necessary to insure for all the inhabitants of the country the 
effectiveness and full enjoyment of their rights, and their equality 
before the laws. 

Article 3. In order to continue the struggle and to carry into 
effect the reforms referred to in the preceding article, the chief of 
the revolution is hereby expressly authorized to convene and or- 
ganize the constitutionalist army and direct the operations of the 
campaign; to appoint the governors and military commanders of 
the States and to remove them, freely; to effect the expropriations 
on account of public utility which may be necessary for the dis- 
tributions of lands, founding of townships, and other public ser- 
vices ; to negotiate loans and issue obligations against the national 
treasury, indicating the property which shall guarantee them ; to 
appoint and remove freely federal employees of the civil adminis- 
tration and of the States and to fix the powers of each of them; 
to make, either directly or through the chiefs he may appoint, 
requisitions for lands, buildings, arms, horses, vehicles, provisions, 
and other elements of war; and to create decorations and decree 
recompenses for services rendered to the revolution. 

Article 4. ITpon the success of the revolution, when the su- 
preme chieftainship may be established in the city of Mexico and 
after the elections for municipal councils in the majority of the 
States of the Eepublic, the first chief of the revolution, as deposi- 
tory of the executive power, shall issue the call for election of con- 
gressmen, fixing in the calls the dates and terms in which the elec- 
tions shall be held. 

Article 5. Once the federal congress has been installed, the 
chief of the revolution shall render an account before it of the use 
he may have made of the powers with which he is vested hereby, 
and he shall especially submit the reforms made and put into 
effect during the struggle, in order that congress may ratify them, 
amend them,, or supplement them, and to the end that those v-^hich 
it may see fit may be raised to the rank of constitutional precepts, 
before the re-establishment of constitutional order. 



97 

Article 6. Tlie federal congress shall convoke the people to 
the election of president of the Ri'pnblic, and as soon as this takes 
place the first chief of the revolution sliall deliver to the president 
elect the executive power of the nation. 

Article 7. In case of absolute default of the present chief of 
the revolution, aiul until the generals and governors proceed to 
the election of the person who is to take his place, the chief ofTice 
shall be temporarily filled by the commander of the army corps 
at the place where the revolutionary government may be at the 
time the default of the first chief occurs. 

V. Carraxza. 

Adolfo de la Huerta, 

Chief Clerl' of the Departtnent of the Interior. 

Constt'htion' and Keforms, 

Vera Crvz, December 12, 1914. 



The above decree has taken the place of the Constiiution of 
Mexico. One cannot tail to recall with a deep feeling of discour- 
agement the following words uttered by rre.-ldent Wilson as an 
excuse for not having recognized Uuerta : "We are the champions 
of constitutional government in this continent !" 



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